Stuck In The Middle
by The Dark Knight's Princess
Summary: Another xover with Criminal Minds. Alex has always struggled with her feelings, especially those she hates to admitting to have for Casey. But what happens when an FBI Agent steps into the spotlight to compete for Casey's heart and affection? R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: As per request, here is what everyone has been waiting on. Heheheh I think I'm looking forward to this story too, and I'm sure that you guys will as well. As always, thanks for reading, and I love you all for staying engaged in these stories of mine. Happy readings!**

**Disclaimer: Any character from the Law and Order Franchise doesn't belong to me. Any of the Criminal Minds characters don't belong to me either. Such a shame…**

A deep scowl plastered across her face, Casey Novak's heels click angrily against the floor as she quickly makes her way through the winding halls of the DA's office. Her usually vibrant crimson hair clings heavily to her head in sickly looking blood red strands from being soaking wet do to the heavily pouring rain outside. The file clutched in her arm is nearly soaked all the way through, and she prays that the ink hasn't worn away to where it isn't legible, she really doesn't want to have to go back to make another copy. The Starbucks coffee cup in her hand provides the only warmth to her body after coming in from such freezing temperatures, yet, because of horrendous traffic, combined with it being the beginning of December, the coffee has gone lukewarm. And on top of all of that; she's late.

Rounding one last corner, she finds herself colliding heavily with Abbie Carmichael. The collision causes Abbie to stumble, and she would have fallen had it not been for Olivia Benson who wraps her arms around the taller brunette's waist to keep her from tumbling.

"Jesus, Abbie, I'm so sorry." Casey apologizes quickly upon seeing her best friend glaring daggers into her.

Abbie straightens up and takes note of the redhead's appearance. "You look like a drenched puppy…" she deadpans seriously before a smirk spreads across her face.

Casey sighs heavily and nods her head shamefully. "Yeah…I slept through my alarm this morning and I forgot an umbrella because I forgot it was supposed to rain. Then Alex called and said I had to run to the precinct to pick up this file from YOU Detective, but you are obviously not there!" she concludes waiving the soaking wet folder in Olivia's face, frowning when she sees the detective crack a small smile and cover it with her hand. "So I had to stand there and wait while Amanda and Fin literally tore your desk apart looking for. THEN I had to go and pick up this because Alex called me AGAIN last minute saying that she needed me to pick up her coffee. So here I am, late to work, soaking wet, and mad as hell. So excuse me, Abigail, if my appearance is not America's Next Top Model ready right now!"

The two brunette's flinch as Casey's rant ends, her words having reached their maximum volume by the time she's finished speaking. It's a little more than obvious that she's upset, but neither of them can hide of much it tickles them to see it.

"Geez, sounds like you've had a rough morning. Why didn't Alex just do that all herself? Lord knows she gets here early enough to do so." Olivia states curiously.

At the mention of the EADA Casey's face contorts into a deeper scowl and Abbie swears that she heard her best friend growl at the question.

"Alex, has gotten it stuck in her head, that me being her ADA means that I am her slave as well." The redhead states angrily, glaring hard at the coffee cup as if it is at fault for her demonic morning.

Abbie snickers and folds her arms as she shakes her head. "But wait, doesn't she have an assistant?"

"Yes, she does, and you know what Kate does? She sits on her ass and watches me run around like Alex's little work monkey. Do you know that Alex has Kate come and tell me things that she needs done?! No, she won't tell her assistant, she'll send her assistant to tell me! If she's just gonna do that why is Kate even here! Shouldn't she be doing her job as an assistant and 'assist'!? Do you make Serena run around and do this that and the other whenever you tell her too?"

"Well, I usually tell my assistant to do it." Abbie says shrugging. "But sometimes Serena voluntarily does things, but that could just be because she's being a good girlfriend."

"Maybe you'd get better treatment if you were dating Alex then." Olivia says snickering, stopping abruptly when she receives a sharp elbow in the ribs from her attorney counterpart. She scowls and rubs her side as she looks up at Abbie with a 'what, I thought I was helping' look.

Casey makes a face and shakes her head in disapproval. "I would highly doubt so, she's very demanding at work, and I'm sure that her personal life is no different. Has she always been this mean and, well, horrible?"

"Aw c'mon Case, she can't be that bad." Abbie teases lightly. "I've heard that I'm worse. She's really cool once you get her to step out of her work zone and everything. Well, that is if anyone can ever get her to step out of her work zone."

"Is she really that mean?" Olivia questions thoroughly, eyebrows raised and head tilted in question.

Casey pauses for a moment before she sighs heavily. "Mean probably wasn't the right word. She's just…difficult…difficult all of the fucking time." She sighs again before feeling that the coffee in her hand has gone cold. "I should give this to her before she accuses me of intentionally bringing her cold coffee. I'll see you guys later."

The other two women watch as Casey disappears down the hall probably to give Alex the things that she needs. They stand in silence for a moment before they erupt in fits of chuckles

"She really has no idea does she?"

"Not. A. Clue."

**Alex Cabot's Office **

Alexandra Cabot is so focused on what she's writing that she doesn't hear the door to her office open and close until there is the feint noise of someone clearing their throat. Setting down her pen, she looks up, and raises her eyebrows at seeking how Casey is quite literally soaking wet to the bone.

"You're wet." She states, a small smirk tugging at her lips when she sees Casey frown and begin to blush furiously. "Did you not know that it was going to rain?"

"Missed the weather…kind of forgot." The redhead murmurs, stepping further into the office. She sits the soaking wet file on Alex's desk and hands her the cup of coffee. "The file…sort of got wet too."

Alex's face contorts into a thoughtful scowl as she picks up the folder and finds all of the papers on the inside melded together, and the ink smeared all over the pages. "I can't read this…" she murmurs sitting the file down once more. Her attention shifts to the coffee, and she picks it up, frowning again, not even bothering to take a sip. "And this is cold. What's the point of you bringing me cold coffee?"

Casey's eyes narrows and she has to bite her tongue to keep from saying what it is she really wants to say. "I'm sorry, I got stuck in traffic on my way back, and it's really cold outside so. I can…go get you another cup if you want."

"No, no, it's fine. I'll just, make do with this I suppose. I will need you to do something about this file though. It's completely useless to me since I can't read it. I would also suggest that you change so you don't catch pneumonia or something horrible like that."

Casey narrows her eyes once again and bites down on her tongue harder this time. _'No, really? Because I thought I would walk around looking like a sickly wet rat all day.' _"I'm sure that I'll be fine, but thank you for your concerns."

Alex nods her head and leans back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other. "Right. Oh, since you're here, I should suppose I should tell you this now. The SVU squad, has requested the assistance of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit."

"Behavioral Analysis Unit…profilers?"

"Exactly, they'll be assisting in the investigation and unfortunately, all of our resources will be at their disposal." The blonde trails off, not exactly trilled about having to work with the Feds.

Casey runs her fingers through her damp, matted hair and nods her head in understanding. "When will they be here?"

"Tomorrow." Alex states, quickly continuing on when she sees Casey opening her mouth, probably to rant about how unprepared she is. "And I would have told you sooner except I didn't know until literally ten minutes before you walked in."

"Great…glad to know the squad wants to keep us in the loop…" Casey murmurs begrudgingly. "Anyway, I'm going to my own office, and stay there until there is a reason to come out. Call me if you need anything." _'It hasn't stopped you before.'_

Alex nods and presumably goes back to what she was doing as Casey exits her office. Not even a minute later, her best friend, Serena Southerlyn, slips through the door and eyes her with a smug look on her face.

"Don't start Serena…" Alex murmurs, setting her pen on the desk, giving the smirking blonde a warning look.

Serena rolls her eyes and proceeds further into the office. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She scoffs, staying silent for a moment before she perks up excitedly. "So, did you do it?"

"You said that you weren't going to start…and to answer your question, my answer is still the same as it always is, no, I did not, and I'm not going to either." Alex states firmly.

Serena whines and closes the door before she plops down in one of the chairs in front of Alex's desk. "But Ali, you should totally do it! You've been pinning over her for months!"

Alex blushes slightly and shakes her head. "She's my ADA, it's not proper work etiquette, and it'd be slightly inappropriate." She rattles off firmly once again, before dropping her voice down to a disappointed mumble. "She would say no anyway."

"AHA! That's what this is about! You're scared to ask her out!"

"I am not scared, Serena, I am simply saying-"

"Nope! You're scared, you basically just said so. Alexandra Cabot is scared to ask out a girl she thinks is pretty, ohhhh this is so cute! Look! You're blushing!"

Alex turns fire engine red and she can feel the heat continue to rush to her face. The blush then begins to creep its way down her neck and Serena's giggling is doing absolutely nothing to help her.

"Will you cut it out? See, this is why I hate telling you stuff like this. I'm too old for this kind of teasing Serena."

"Well, I'm sorry; I'm just saying that it's super adorable that you're afraid to ask Casey on a date. You two would be so cute together! When was the last time you were in a relationship anyway?"

Alex sighs exasperatedly and slumps down in her chair. She's known that Serena has always gotten carried away with things at times, and this is one of those times. "Serena! Will you stop? I'm not asking Casey to go out with me, because she'd say no, and then it'd be too embarrassing to come to work with her after she rejected me. It's not happening."

Serena rolls her eyes and scoffs as she shakes her head in utter disapproval. "You're scared, just admit it so you don't have to keep lying through your teeth. And what makes you so sure that she's going to say no? I'm sure that she'd love to go out with you. Who wouldn't?"

"A whole bunch of people." The elder attorney mumbles, staring down at her desk.

"C'mon, Ali, don't be so insecure. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would go out with you. You're just that awesome. Hey! You know what I can do? I can have Abbie hint Casey if you want. You know they're best friends and everything."

Alex's eyes bulge and she shakes her head vigorously. "No! That-that's probably the last thing that I would want. Like I said, I can't ask her out. Why are we talking about this? It's ridiculous."

Serena smiles cheekily and leans forward in her chair. "Cuz you loooooove her, that's why we're talking about it. I can't believe that she hasn't caught on yet. You gaze at her like a lovesick puppy sometimes. Hell, it's completely obvious to the rest of us that you have feelings for her."

Alex's eyes widen again, and her mouth opens and closes several times before she can come up with a coherent and respectable answer. "How is it-what do you mean it's completely obvious?!"

"Well, let's see, you told me, and I told Abbie-"

"You told Abbie?!"

"Duh, we tell each other everything. Anyway, I told Abbie, and then Kim can just kinda tell, same with the detectives too, it's a little obvious to everyone else, BUT Casey."

Alex groans and lets her head fall to her desk in a loud 'thump'. "Ow…" she whines, realizing that her previous actions weren't exactly a good idea. "This sucks, all of you should just let it go."

"No chance in hell." Serena states shaking her head once again. "You'll feel better if you just ask her to go out with you."

"No, I won't, I'll be initiating public embarrassment and then I'll never be able to look at her again. At least let me have that satisfaction. Besides, what's the worst that could happen if I don't?"

**I don't know Alex, what IS the worst that could happen? Hm….leave a review? **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Whoa, you guys fell in love with this story rather quickly huh? That's okay, I'm glad that you guys like it. Now I must say, this will be a dual paring story with an A/C endgame, but there will also be a fair amount of Casey/JJ romance in the future, hope everyone will be okay with that, just push through, I promise you'll like the story. If you can read Game of Obsession and Dangerous Collisions, you can read this one :3 **

**The Very Next Day **

"This is ridiculous; I cannot believe that she sent me here by myself." Casey grumbles irritably as she and Serena make their way into the elevator of the precinct.

Serena makes a face and puts a hand over her heart in mock hurt. "So what…am I literally nothing to you? Jesus, I only decided to come because I didn't want you to be here alone, but since my presence is not appreciated."

"C'mon Serena, you know that's not what I meant. I just meant that Alex should have at least had the decency to come with me. I mean, she's the EADA, she's the one that needs the file, why couldn't she have just done this herself? I knew that I shouldn't have come into work this morning." Casey grumbles, leaning against the steel wall of the lift.

Rolling her eyes, Serena makes a noise that is a cross between a scoff and a snort. "You're so melodramatic sometimes, you know that? You realize that all you do is complain about Alex? 'Oh Alex made me do this, oh Alex made me do that, oh my god, Alex is to stubborn to blah, blah, blah,' You sound like a broken record. If she bothers you so much then why don't you just tell her? Then maybe you two will have hot steamy sex in her office and all will be well."

Casey's eyes bulge out of their sockets and she looks at the blonde with a look of utter shock and confusion. "Wh-what?!"

"Nothing, nothing, I didn't say anything." Serena recovers quickly as she steps off of the elevator with a confused Casey in tow.

"That didn't sound like nothing! What did you say!? And why are you so vulgar sometimes?!"

"Hey, I am a very mild mannered lil lady." Serena teases in a faux southern accent as she gives a little curtsey.

Casey stops walking and raises her eyebrows at Serena's way of speaking. "It sounds real and authentic when Abbie says it. It just sounds plain gross when you do it." she deadpans seriously.

"If you're going to compare my southern accent to someone else's, don't do it to someone who has a real one. A real one that is incredibly sexy…a real one that is incredibly sexy and gets heavier and heavier when she's mad…or when we're having sex and…god, is it getting hot in here to you?" Serena pants, her cheeks flushed a light pink as she fans herself with her hand.

"Something is wrong with you." Casey says shaking her head, as she takes the lead into the squad room, with the flushed blonde following close behind. Upon stepping into the squad room, the two attorneys notice about seven people that they've never seen before, and most of them appear to have guns.

"Whoa, I've never seen an FBI agent up close before." Serena says sarcastically as she takes a seat on Olivia's desk, earning her a scowl from the detective.

"You comfortable?" Liv mumbles sarcastically before she leans back in her chair, rolling her eyes when Serena sticks her tongue out at her. "Anyway, they got here this morning, and I already wish they'd leave. I personally think we could've solved this on our own, but of course the captain had other intentions. So now we have a bunch of Feds with sticks up their asses in our squad room. And to think I already didn't look forward coming to work."

Casey snickers quietly and shakes her head at Olivia's bluntness. "I'm sure that it won't be that bad. If anything just imagine you're working with Alex…and multiply that by seven."

Serena rolls her eyes and glances around the squad room once more. "What is she wearing…" she mumbles referring to the flamboyant blonde sitting at a table in the corner amidst several computers. "I've never seen so many colors in…I don't even know."

Casey glances up to see who Serena is talking about but instead of looking at the blonde at the table, her gaze is caught by the woman standing next to the table, having a conversation with a lean brunette. She involuntarily takes a sharp intake of breath when she sees the woman smile and run her hand through her straight, shiny blonde hair.

She's so captivated by this woman, that she doesn't realize that Olivia and Serena are speaking to her until she feels a pen connect with the side of her face. "Um, I-I'm sorry, wh-what'd you say?" she stutters out miserably, not exactly having any kind of clue on who was speaking.

"What were you staring at?" Olivia asks curiously.

"More like who were you staring at…" Serena says smirking as she follows Casey's former line of vision.

Casey shakes her head and turns back to busying herself with the file on the detective's desk. "Nothing…no one." She mumbles shaking her head once more.

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

"She still looking?" Garcia asks smugly with out looking away from her computer.

JJ glances at the redhead across the room out of her peripheral vision and shakes her head before turning back to Emily, presumably having a 'conversation'. "No, but she was though."

"It wasn't looking, it was more like gazing." The older agent teases snickering, causing JJ to scowl and swat her on the arm. "Hey, I'm just stating a fact. She was checking you out Jayje."

"Whatever. We're here to solve a case, not to find me a date." JJ mutters, folding her arms and shaking her head.

"Though that would be a bonus. When's the last time you went on a real date?" Garcia asks raising her eyebrows in question. "But all cheap shots at your pathetic loneliness aside, look at her, she's gorgeous."

Emily snorts and decides to add in her two cents. "Yeah, and you know you're a leg woman, and she's got legs that go on…and on…and on…and o-"

"Will you two shut up?!" JJ hisses, feeling like her two best friends have decided that it's more than acceptable to gang up on her. She turns her head again and sshe eyes the woman up and down. She's dressed in a knee length black skirt with a blue button down and a matching black blazer. Though JJ would never admit it to her best friends, the woman does have amazing legs and her heels seem to compliment them perfectly. In addition to her attire and posture, JJ eventually deduces that the woman is an attorney.

Taking a shaky deep breath, the blonde agent turns back to her best friends, to find the both of them wearing similar smug expressions. "I hate you two…I'm going to the bathroom…" she grumbles before exiting the squad room.

"Isn't she cute when she's flustered?" Penelope squeals, slightly pouncing in her chair.

"It really is fun to do this to her isn't it?" Emily replies with a well known smirk.

After having met the agents, and assuring them that her incompetent boss will eventually grace them with her presence, Casey feels the need to get away from off of these people; more specifically, she needs to get away from Serena who keeps looking at her with this overly smug expression plastered on that face of hers. She slips out of the squad room, hopefully unnoticed, and begins to make her way towards the restroom.

Just as she's about halfway there, she collides with another person that sends her stumbling to where she is sure she's going to fall. Instead, she feels a set of hands grasp her arms firmly to keep her from taking the inevitable plunge to the floor, and she soon finds herself staring into the cobalt blue eyes of the agent from the squad room.

"Whoa, sorry about that." JJ apologizes, helping the attorney steady herself. "Are you alright?"

Casey jerkily nods her head and releases her tight knit hold that she had on the agent's slender yet well toned biceps. "U-um, yeah. I'm terribly sorry, I really need to watch where I'm going."

The two women stay silent for a moment before JJ clears her throat and extends her hand. "Jennifer Jareau," she says properly introducing herself.

"Casey Novak…" Casey squeaks, shaking the blonde's hand.

"What is it you do Casey? Forgive me, but you don't exactly look like a detective."

"Oh, no…I'm not a cop or anything. I'm an ADA. I just stopped by to pick up a file to take back to my boss. "

"Oh, I see, that would make a little more sense. Um…would you mind giving me my hand back?"

Casey flinches and immediately releases her grasp on JJ's hand. Of course, she was completely oblivious to the awkwardly long handshake, and she can only begin to imagine the things that are running through the blonde's head. "Sorry…" she mumbles quietly, trying and failing miserably to hide the blush making its way to her cheeks.

JJ chuckles and smiles brightly showing off her perfectly whitened teeth. "It's fine, don't worry about it. So, um, I guess I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, I'll…see you…" Casey says, mustering a smile as the agent steps around her to make her way back to the squad room. Seconds later, like a ghost, Serena appears in front of her with that same smirk on her face. "Serena, don't you dare start."

Serena pouts and attempts to put on her innocent face. "I have no idea what you're referring to." _'Oh, Alex really isn't gonna like this.' _

**Panera Bread Café **

"I really hate this restaurant…" Alex murmurs, glancing over the menu once more.

Kim snidely mimics Alex's complaint while Abbie settles on rolling her eyes. Of course Alex would find something to complain about; she always does. It's either to restaurant, the restaurant's food, the people who work in the restaurant, hell, even sometimes it's where the restaurant is located.

"You've never been here Alex." Abbie grumbles as she reads over her own menu. "Just try it, you might like it."

"Who puts chili in a bread bowl? That's repulsive." The blonde mutters to herself more than the other women at the table.

"Why didn't you go with Casey to the precinct?" Kim asks raising her eyebrows, suddenly feeling like she just put her foot in her mouth for asking such a stupid question.

Blue eyes shoot up from the menu before she quickly glance back down, dismissing the subject at hand. Sighing, Alex puts her menu on the table, and relaxes into her chair. "I just didn't want to go. I wasn't in the mood to deal with the FBI, and I only needed one file. I'll just meet them some other time.

Abbie snorts and ducks her head down behind the menu to hide her smile. "That's code for, 'I'm hopelessly in love with Casey and I can't stand being alone with her because I'm just that awkward'.

Alex scowls deeply and smacks Abbie hard in the back of the head. The exchange causes Kim to crack a smile, while the other two women glare hard at each other.

"All jokes aside, I hear that you haven't made a move yet." Kim states, once they've given the waiter their orders. "Don't you think you've put it off long enough?"

"I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Serena. It's inappropriate, irrational, and completely pointless to do it when I know that she's going to say no." Alex explains blandly. "Now is that clear to the both of you?"

"What's clear to me is that Alexandra Cabot is being a pussy." Abbie says with literally no shame.

Alex narrows her eyes at the unnecessary use of her first name and she clenches her teeth so hard that she's sure they'll break. "I don't appreciate the name calling, _Abigail_."

"Well, if you weren't being a pussy, _Alexandra_, then I wouldn't have the need to call you one then would I?"

"Stop calling me that!"

"I'll stop when it's not true."

"What are you two, five?" Kim groans resting her head in her hand. "Honestly, sometimes the way you two argue, is like an old married couple. No, you're worse than an old married couple because old married couples are quiet about their arguments. I came here to eat, _not _to baby sit the two of you. If Alex wants to be a pussy then let her be a pussy, but there is no need to start dropping first name bombs all over the place just to annoy each other. Now that that's out of the way, in all seriousness, Alex you kind of are being a pussy…"

The blonde's jaw drops and d she immediately clamps her mouth shut finding it completely pointless to argue with her friends. Though she would never admit it out loud, she is completely and utterly terrified when it comes to the subject of asking Casey on a date. Worst case scenario is that Casey says no, but that worst case scenario is also Alex's worst nightmare. She's a Cabot, and Cabot's don't get rejected. But she's already broken that rule by being scared half to death.

**Having lunch with Abbie and Kim at the same time must be hell and then some. Yeah, no, Alex's denial is only futile in her friends' eyes I'm afraid. Also, I feel like I've made Serena a little too smug in this story! Where the heck did that come from? Oh well, anyway, leave a review? **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Really glad you guys are loving this. So, here's another chapter for you guys! Happy readings :3 **

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan **

"Will you stop following me around Serena?" Alex grumbles as she makes her way down the hall with her incompetent best friend in tow. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head, despite being impressed that Serena is able to keep up with her fast pace and long stride.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you! If you'd just listen, to me then I'll leave you alone." Serena nearly shouts as she weaves her way through people to keep up with Alex. She finally catches up to the taller blonde, and grabs her arm, dragging her to a stop. "Christ, why do you always have to make things so difficult?"

Alex narrows her eyes and snatches her arm out of Serena's grasp. "And why are you always medaling in my business? What do you want?"

"Rude…anyway, I just thought you should know that ever since that time asey and I went to the precinct, she and one of the agents have been sharing a little more than just friendly glances. They're talking…a lot." Serena explains warningly. She sees an emotion of some sort flash across Alex's face, and as soon as it's there, it's gone, but not so quick that she wasn't able to catch it. "You need to do something fast."

Shaking her head, Alex averts her gaze to the wood furnishings of the floor in slight shame and disappointment. "Serena, I can't…we've talked about this already. It's inappropriate."

"What is inappropriate is you waiting around here for some kind of miracle to happen. So what if she says no, at least you would have tried right?"

"Yeah, and then brought the utmost maximum amount of embarrassment upon myself and then I would probably have to leave the country because I'd never be able to look at her again. It isn't as easy as you're making it sound Serena…"

Rolling her eyes, Serena opens her mouth to say something snarky when she is cut off by the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly. Both she, and Alex's heads turn and they realize that they've stopped right outside of Kim's office, and the brunette is looking at them curiously from her desk.

"There something you two would care to share, or do you always have heated conversations outside of other people's offices…?" she asks curiously.

Serena gives Alex a look before she shoves the taller blonde into Kim's office and closes the door behind both of them. "We were just talking about how Alex is going to miss her chance with Casey, because she's too afraid to ask her out."

"Why are you going around telling everyone I'm afraid?"

"Because you are." Kim answers bluntly, earning a glare from Alex and a satisfied smirk from Serena.

"See? Everyone knows you're scared. What are you gonna do if that FBI agent asks her out?" Serena exclaims, flailing her hands in the air.

Alex hesitates for a long moment before sighing in slight defeat. "I guess I wouldn't do anything."

"What FBI agent?" Kim asks curiously, feeling like she's been left out of the loop.

Serena raises her eyebrows at Alex's answer and her jaw hits the floor in shock. "You cannot stand there and tell me that you would do absolutely nothing if Casey went out with that agent. You'd be jealous."

"I would not do anything! And I wouldn't be jealous!"

"Yes you would…"

"What FBI agent?"

"No I wouldn't! Stop treating me like I'm a child Serena! Why can't you just stop pushing your way into my personal life? So what if Casey wants to go out with a federal agent, that's not my call…"

"What federal agent?!" Kim asks for the third time, fully realizing that she's being ignored. She sits in silent in her chair watching her two friends argue before she's had enough. "WHAT. AGENT!?"

Both Alex and Serena flinch as they both turn to the brunette glaring hard at them. "Geez, you don't have to shout…" Serena mumbles rolling her eyes. "There was this agent at the precinct that Casey is being very friendly with."

Kim raises her eyebrows in amazement and turns to Alex with a stern look. "You need to ask her…maybe this is supposed to be your push. Your time is running out, and rather quickly from what I've just heard."

"If you want me to do it so bad, then why don't one of you just do it for me." Alex grumbles sarcastically. There is a long silence between the three of them, and she looks up to see both Kim and Serena staring at her with blank expressions. She knows what's coming. "Oh my god…no."

In a nanosecond Kim shoots out of her chair, leaving it spinning and Serena bolts for the door. Alex groans and quickly rushes outside of the office where she sees that Serena and Kim have probably a ten second head start on her. "I wasn't serious!" she calls after them irritably. Realizing that there's more than one way to get some place in the DA's office, she quickly turns around and heads the other direction. "This is so fucking ridiculous."

Heels click rapidly against the floor as Serena and Kim maintain their presumed lead over Alex. Both of them are halfway expecting for Liz to show up out of nowhere and give them the 'no running in the halls' speech, but they technically aren't running as far as their shoes are concerned.

"She's going to kill us for this later." Kim murmurs, at which Serena snickers and nods. The two round one last corner towards Casey's office, only to freeze in their tracks when they see a scowling Alex standing by the door. Oh so close, but yet so far.

"I don't know what you two think you plan to do, but both of you have the wrong idea." Alex says flatly, her icy glare sending chills down the women's spines. "Just leave it alone?"

"But Aliii, how are we gonna leave it alone when it's making you sad?" Serena whines, stomping her foot. "We're only trying to help. Right Kim?"

"Huh, what? Oh yeah, that's what we're doing…Hehehe, Ali." The brunette snickers quietly, making fun of the nickname.

Alex opens her mouth to protest, and that she does. Pretty soon, the three women are bickering amongst each other causing a small scene in the hallway. They're so engrossed in their argument that they don't notice the presence of two new people in the conversation.

"HEY!" Casey shouts gaining the attention of the three women arguing outside of her office. "What's going on?"

Alex turns her head, and the first thing that she notices is the familiar agent that she met at the precinct several days ago. Now her only further question is; what the hell is she doing here?

"Um…we, were…just…talking…about…the weather. Good to see you Agent Jareau!" Serena recovers quickly, trying to change the awkward mood.

"Yeah…good to see you…" Alex growls out through ground teeth, causing Jennifer to look upon her with confusion.

"Uh…yeah…you too." JJ says, involuntarily taking a step back away from the taller blonde with a look that could kill. She tears her eyes away from Alex, and they settle on the stranger she hasn't seen before. "I don't think that we've met…"

Kim smiles nervously and extends her hand towards the agent. "Uhm, no, we haven't. Kim Greyleck, you must be Jennifer Jareau, right? Alex here talks about you."

Alex's eyes widen and if there were ever a time that she would want to kick Kim's head across the room like it was a football, it would be now. "Aheh, what Kim means is, I may have mentioned you, one…or twice…or, you know what, the three of us should really be going, shouldn't we Serena?"

Serena narrows her eyes and looks up at her best friend. "I don't remember having to-oof! Oh yeah, we do have to…do that thing…with that person…in that place. C'mon Kim." She says quickly, rubbing her side from where Alex's elbow dug into her ribs.

Casey sighs and shakes her head as she watches the three other attorney's bicker all the way down the hall until she's sure they've disappeared around the corner. "I'm sorry…about them." She mumbles, unlocking her office for the two of them to step inside.

"It's fine. You're friends do seem…interesting." JJ states, not really knowing what to make of what she's just seen. "Are they always like that."

"No not really, especially not in the courtroom or anything, I don't know what was going on, but at the same time, I don't think I really want to. Just let me put these away, and we can go."

JJ nods her head and shoves her hands in her pockets as she takes in the make up of the redhead's office. "So where do you recommend we go to lunch?"

Casey finishes shoving her files in her desk and she stands up, grabbing her coat. "I know this really good Italian café, that is, if you like Italian food."

"Great, I love it."

**Italian Café **

"I have a question, if you don't mind me asking." JJ begins, recalling something that's been on her mind since earlier. "Are you and Alex a…thing?"

Casey's eyes widen and she vigorously shakes her head at the question. "Oh my god, no, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Well, only because she was looking at me like she wanted to rip my throat out for being with in five feet of you. Now that I think about it, it's always kind of like that whenever she sees me. Does she not like me?" Jennifer asks, tilting her head a little in question, an action that Casey can't help but find completely adorable.

"I-I, I don't think it's because she doesn't like you, Alex just struggles with new people, that's all." The attorney trails off, suddenly becoming interested in the meaning of Alex's behavior. "But I can assure you, that we aren't seeing each other. She hates me too much anyway."

This causes the blonde's eyebrows to raise in shock. "Why would she hate you? You seem like a very down to earth person, and I personally enjoy talking to you."

Casey ducks her head and fails to hide the blush that's made it's presence known on her face. "Thanks, I-I like talking to you too. But Alex is, very hard to work with. Ever since I've been her ADA I just haven't been sure whether she really likes me or not, and if she does, she really has a weird way of showing it. What about you? Why did you ask me to lunch with you? I mean, I don't mind, I was just…wondering."

JJ shrugs and leans back in her chair, absentmindedly stirring the contents of her drink with her straw. "Because, since we started talking a few days ago, I've wanted to sit down and get to know you. If that's okay with you…?"

Nodding her head, Casey blushes once more and traces random patterns on the table with her index finger. "That's fine, I mean…yeah, it's okay."

**Meanwhile…**

"What are they doing? Are they kissing?" Garcia asks peering out of the passenger side window of the SUV parked across the street from the café. She brings the binoculars closer to her face, and zooms in as close as she possibly can.

Emily narrows her eyes to peer closer and shakes her head. "Negative, there is no lip action. But really Garcia, they've only gone to lunch, what, twice since we got here? Give it some time."

Penelope whines and looks away from the binoculars, turning around to face the older woman. "I knooooow, but you know I'm just sooooo impatient when it comes to things like this. I mean, what if they have to spy on them for like…ever?!"

"You exaggerate, you know that? I just can't believe that Jayje thinks she can get away with lying to us. 'I'm gonna just go grab some lunch on my own, I'll be back'. Pfft, does that look like 'on her own' to you?"

"Not hardly, but goodness Em, my little gumdrop is growing up! I just…I just don't know what to do!" the tech analyst explains as she wipes her eyes.

Rolling her eyes Emily snatches the binoculars the looks through them herself. "What you better not do is tell JJ we've been following her. That's a shit storm, I DON'T want to be in."

**Alex, Alex, Alex…tsk, tsk, tsk. She need not wait so long, she might miss out on her chance :P Leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: another chapter for you guys! Hope ya like it! **

**The Plaza Hotel; A Week Later**

"You two are well aware that I know you've been following me, right?" JJ asks as she enters their shared hotel room.

Both Emily and Garcia freeze what their doing in their respective parts of the room, and look at each other, one begging the other to speak up first. Several questions are being exchanged between the two of them, just from their eyes; how does she know, why does she know, how long has she known, why hasn't she said anything, did you tell her something, oh my god were we that obvious?

"Uh….is that so?" Emily says awkwardly, turning her attention back to her tablet. So, maybe she could've come up with something better than 'is that so' but at the time, it's a whole lot better than what Garcia has come up with, which is nothing.

JJ nods her head and plops down on her bed, turning her head towards her best friends who are on opposite sides of the room. "Yes, that's very so. So, my next question is why? No, scratch that, I know why, simply because you two are just that nosy, but why did you feel the need to be that nosy? It was just lunch."

"Yeah, but just lunch can turn into something more Jayje!" Garcia exclaims, throwing her arms in the air. "We have a week off after that bloodbath of a case. I think you should take her on a real date while we're still here."

"I don't know Garcia." JJ murmurs glancing down at her hands. "I don't want it to be too soon, and-"

"Jennifer, you've gone to lunch with her almost everyday since we've got here." Emily deadpans, "Asking her on a real date is pretty much the same thing, except it is dinner…duh. And it's not like she'd say no, there's obviously some chemistry between the two of you."

There is a brief pause before JJ sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "I don't know, I just don't want to rush things."

This time, it's Penelope who speaks up before Emily even got a chance to think about opening her mouth. "It is _dinner_, JJ! It's not like you're asking her to go jump into bed with you!" she exclaims a little louder than necessary. "…I mean…you haven't taken her to bed yet right?"

Emily bursts into laughter and falls back onto the mattress while JJ blushes furiously and fixes Garcia with a stern yet deathly glare. "No! I haven't even had those kinds of thoughts! Plus, this is New York, I don't know what places are good to take someone to dinner…"

"…you have me, Penelope Garcia, the oracle of all knowing, sitting right here, with all of her resources at your disposal, and you say that you don't know where to take a pretty woman to dinner. Come on Jennifer, what's your next excuse."

"Uh…she's out of my league?"

This time, it's Emily who decides to add in her two cents, actually it's more like ten cents but still. "What do you mean she's 'out of your league'? She's an attorney, you're a federal agent. It's not like she's a CEO and you're a farmer. Just ask her to dinner. Do it or I'll have Garcia hack into your cell phone and do it for you."

JJ blanches and her mouth falls agape as she looks between her two best friends once more. "You wouldn't." she says in a warning tone, paling a little more when she sees Emily and Garcia looking at her with completely serious expressions. "Alright, fine. Fine, I'll ask her to dinner."

A squeal erupts the silence in the room and Garcia bounces excitedly on her bed. "Oh this is so cute! I can't wait!"

"You aren't going…" Jennifer deadpans, her eyes being deadly serious. "The least the two of you can do is not follow me this time."

Both of the other women huff in defeat and simultaneously deflate into their mattresses. "Fiiine, I suppose that's fair." the dark haired woman whines, flopping back down on to the bed. "Hey, how'd you know that we were following you anyway?"

"Probably the second day we went to lunch, was when I saw you and Garcia arguing over what looked like binoculars in the truck. That and I did feel a little suspicious upon seeing one of the Bureau SUVs following me to the DA's office when I went to pick up Casey. The two of you aren't exactly _discrete_."

Garcia pouts and throws a pillow across the room, hitting Emily square in the head. "I told you we should have used the disguises!"

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan **

"Abbie, hang up the phone…" Casey grumbles leaning back in her chair. "I don't care if you feel like talking to me, if you want to talk, come down here and talk, I'm not going to sit here and clog my phone line because you feel like being lazy...no, I don't want to talk about your sex issues…Abbie! I just said that I didn't want to talk about it! That sounds like something you should take up with Sere-oh jeez, really? It's been that long? Oh god, that's…that's a long time….yeah, that's definitely something you should take up with Serena."

In the middle of her phone call, Casey looks up just in time to find Alex poking her head into her office. She gives a small sigh and sits up, preparing herself for the day's workload. "Hey Abbs, I gotta go, Alex just walked in…look, talk to Serena, she can help you more than I can…oh my god, are you crying…yes, yes you are I can hear you…well, I gotta go, okay…okay…"

"Why is Abbie crying?" Alex asks curiously as she steps further into the office.

Casey makes a face, as she opens and closes her mouth several times before she's able to come up with an appropriate answer. "Uhm, you, really don't want to know. So, what can I do for you? Kate not here again?"

"No, no, she's here," the blonde says nervously, suddenly becoming interested in her shoes. "Um, I just h-have to ask you a question."

Casey raises her eyebrows in sudden interest. If she didn't know any better, she would say that Alex looks nervous about something. Alex Cabot never looks nervous about anything, ever. Now Casey knows this is one of two things, either the world is ending, or this isn't work relating…or maybe a little bit of both. "Okay, shoot."

Alex takes a deep breath and begins wringing her hands out of nervous habit. She knew that this was a bad idea, and she has no idea why she let Serena talk her into doing this. "W-well, um, it's something that I've been meaning to ask you for a while."

"Uh, okay, go for it."

"I-I've been meaning to ask for a while now, and I guess I just…I don't know." _'Oh good god, get it together Cabot, you sound like a stuttering fool. Oh god, is it getting hot in here? It's really hot in here, I can't do this.' _

Raising her eyebrows once more, Casey leans forward in her chair, resting her arms on her desk. "Jesus, Alex, what ever it is will you just ask?"

Alex takes a deep breath and nods her head. "Right, well, I uh…" she pauses, and takes in yet another shaky deep breath. "I was wonder, uh…do you still have my pen that you borrowed like a month ago?"

The question in itself stuns Casey and it takes probably a full fifteen seconds for her to register what has just been asked. She blinks in confusion before she shakes her head and begins looking through the midst of things cluttering her desk. "Uh, yeah, sure, here." she says awkwardly holding out the pen. "Sorry."

Alex takes her pen and forces a smile. "Thanks, that's all I wanted." She lies miserably, mentally cursing herself for chickening out on such an important matter. She berates herself even more for coming up with such a lame and pitiful cover story.

A knock at the door startles both women out of the awkward silence, and Alex turns around to see just the person she DIDN'T want to see. She tightens her grip on her pen, halfway expecting it to break under her grip of anger.

"Oh, um, I can come back if I'm interrupting something." JJ apologizes, shifting uncomfortably under Alex's steely gaze. "Er, hello, Alex."

"Jennifer…" Alex responds, her greeting having an underlying icy tone that nearly sends chills to the other women in the room. "Actually, I was just leaving. Thank you for my pen Casey."

Eyeing Alex curiously, Casey blinks once more and nods her head. "Yeah, yeah sure." She murmurs, watching the blondes exchange a look of some sorts as Alex exits her office. She shakes it away and a smile spreads across her face when she sees JJ step further into the office. "Hey you."

"Hey yourself." The agent replies with a warm smile that slightly fades seconds later. "Are you sure she doesn't hate me? Because I'm getting the vibe that she hates me. I usually don't make a habit of profiling people when I'm not working a case, but…"

"She's Alex, she gives off that vibe to everyone." Casey says dismissively waving off Alex's odd behavior. Maybe she'll ask what it was about later, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious. "Anyway, to what do I owe this visit?"

A small smile ghosts JJ's lips and she runs her fingers through her hair, as if to prepare herself for the set task at hand. "Well, I have about a week or so off, and I was just wondering if you'd like to go to dinner with me. Maybe tomorrow night?"

Casey feels like a teenager as she felts a grin flit across her features and her heart rate speed up a bit. "W-wow, really? I'd love to." She responds, trying to contain her excitement.

Jennifer's grin morphs into a full on smile and she feels like a giant weight has just been lifted off of her shoulders. "Great, um, how about I pick you up at seven?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I'll text you my address." The redhead responds giddily, as she tries to remember when the last time she actually had a date was.

Neither of the two women in the office are aware of the blonde that is lingering in the hall just beyond the doorway.

**Later That Evening **

"I'm having sex problems." Abbie groans, slumping down into the booth with a miserable expression on her face. "It's killing me."

The other four women in the booth makes faces and shake their heads at her vulgarity. Honestly, for the life of them they don't understand why it still surprises them that Abbie literally has no shame about hardly anything.

"Sounds like a personal problem…" Olivia mutters, taking a swig of her beer. "Where's Serena so you can talk about your sex issues with her?" Kim questions, slightly praying that she isn't going to regret it.

Abbie groans again and let's her head fall against the back of the booth with a audible 'thump'. "She went to her place. She said she didn't really feel like going out today. God, I'm so horny, and we haven't had sex in almost three months. That's almost ninety days! That's one fourth of a year!"

"I'm with Liv," Casey snickers as stirs the contents of her drink with the straw. "That sounds like a personal problem."

"I'm just saying…it feels like I'm dying here." the tall brunette whines, slumping further down into her seat. She glances next to her and notices Alex staring absent mindedly into her cocktail. "Hey, why are you so quiet? You have said anything all night, what's up?" she questions, poking her friend in the cheek.

Alex quickly swats Abbie's hand away from her face and shakes her head. "I'm fine." She murmurs, not looking away from her drink. Her lie is easily picked up by the other women, but no one is sure if they want to say anything."

"We should do something tomorrow night, it's a Saturday, and I need weekend relief." Kim states, taking a long sip of her own drink.

"I'm game, there really isn't anything to do this weekend." Olivia says shrugging before she turned to the woman on her right. "What about you Case?"

Casey blushes and fails to hide the smile that spreads across her face. "Uh I can't, I have plans…"

Abbie raises her eyebrows and perks up at her best friend stating she has plans. "Oh? Is that so? And what might these plans be?"

"I have a date…." The redhead responds, a sheepish grin spreads across her face.

"A date?" Kim questions, all eyes flickering to Alex, briefly wondering if she finally did it. "With who might we ask?"

Casey smiles sheepishly once again, and feels a little embarrassed for feeling like a giddy school girl. "Her name's Jennifer…"

Olivia was in mid sip and she soon finds the contents of her drink spewing from her mouth in an epic spit take. "JAREAU?!"

Abbie, however, stares blankly at Casey as if she's just said she found the cure for answer. "What…"

"Oh, Benson, c'mon! I JUST had this dry cleaned!" Kim groans, wiping at her now beer stained shirt with a napkin.

"Uh, yeah? Is that a problem…?" Casey asks wearily, a little worried about her friends' behaviors upon learning she has a date, and at the same time.

Abbie's eyes flicker to Alex who has now slumped further down into the booth with an blank expression on her face. For anyone who doesn't know Alex, they would just pass off her quietness as fatigue, but Abbie knows it's far more than just that.

_'Oh, Case, yes, yes, that is definitely a problem.' _

**Uh oh, is all I have to say about this. Dun, dun, dun! Lol, leave a review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Only one update today guys, simply because I am more than exhausted. But, I did make sure to make it a super long chapter due to my single update today. Hope you can forgive!**

**Alex Cabot's Apartment **

Serena yawns and stretches as she watches Alex continue to pace vibrantly back and forth in her living room. She stretches out on the couch and tries to find a new angle to see the television, but is beginning to find it thoroughly impossible because there is something, or rather, someone obstructing her view every few seconds.

"Alex," she whines flopping deeper into the cushions. "I can't seeee!"

Briefly ceasing to mutter to herself, Alex stands stationary and fixes her best friend with a hard glare. "Serena, we have problems at hand, and you seeing what is on the television, is NOT one of them."

Serena rolls her eyes before she throws her arm over her head in anguish. "Of course, because when do we never have problems." She grumbles darkly before turning her head to look at the once again pacing blonde. "I suppose that this isn't the time for an 'I told you so'?"

"Not hardly." Alex grounds out irritably. "We need to do something."

"We' need to do something?! Last I checked, this was your problem. I told you you should have asked her out, but noooo, it would have been inappropriate and you're a Cabot and Cabots don't do inappropriate things. You know, now that I realize it, when has your name gotten anyone anything, besides me the presidential suite in a hotel?"

There is a long silence as Alex stares at Serena with narrowed eyes and a confused expression. "…you used my last name to get a top notch suite in some hotel…?"

Serena moves her head from side to side and shrugs her shoulders dismissively. "I might have…a few times…and maybe once to get out of a parking ticket. I mean come on, blonde hair, blue eyes, we could totally be sisters, but that's beside the point. Actually, I've forgotten what my point was, what were we talking about?"

This time, Alex rolls her eyes and flops down into one of the armchairs, putting an end to her wretched pacing, much to the other woman's delight. "Oh Rena, what am I gonna do?" she groans as she pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Go to Casey and confess your undying love for her?"

"..Realistically, Serena."

"Hey! That was me being realistic!" Serena exclaims crossing her arms in slight offense. "In away, you kind of knew that this was gonna happen, but you kept putting it off. Theoretically, I should be asking you what you're gonna do…"

Alex remains silence for the longest of times and it's only because she knows that Serena is right. She sighs heavily and sinks into the cushions of the chair, feeling that familiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she's felt for probably the past twenty four hours. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I realize this is my own fault, but I just couldn't bring myself to ask her on a date like I wanted to. Every time I would start, something stupid, irrelevant, ridiculous, or all of the above would come out. I think she thinks I hate her anyway."

Serena gives her best friend a blank look before she slowly nods her head. "Well I mean, you work her like a dog…oh my god wait, that's your excuse to be close to her isn't it?" she questions shockingly, gasping when she receives a shameful nod in response. "Oh my god Alex, you're such a guy."

"Did you just call me a guy?! What the hell?"

This time it's Serena who gets off of the couch and begins to vibrantly pace the length of the living room; only she's frantically waving her hands in the air, as she tries to come up with what it is she wants to say. "That is like what guys do. Especially guys in high school. They will annoy the living hell out of their crush just to be noticed and to be close to said crush. You might not have realized it, but that's what you've been doing with Casey. Hence: You're being a guy."

Grumbling and folding her arms tightly across her chest, Alex rolls her eyes and averts her gaze elsewhere in the room. "I'm not being a guy, but whatever. I just need to do something. Something that's simple."

"Well what, are you gonna follow her on her date or something…" Serena dismisses sarcastically. The silence that follows her sarcastic rhetoric causes her to raise her eyebrows and her mouth fall agape. "Oh my god, Alex I wasn't being serious…"

**Casey Novak's Apartment **

Abbie is peacefully sprawled out across Casey's bed, staring intently at the ceiling when she feels a shirt land accurately across her face. Sitting up, she peels the article of clothing off of her head only to be hit with another, and another, only mere seconds later.

"Case, what the hell are you-oof! What are you doing!" the brunette exclaims, snatching a pair of jeans off head. "Are you trying to bury me alive or something?"

"Or something…" Casey murmurs as she continues to literally tear her clothes drawers apart, succeeding in covering her best friend in more of her clothes.

Abbie sighs and flops back down on to the bed, frowning as she's hit with a bra followed by a pair of panties. "Casey! What are you doing?! I don't want to offend you but please, spare me from having to wear your panties on my head. It'll take away from my image."

Casey straightens up and moves to her closet where she begins tearing things apart in there as well. "You don't have an image. And I'm trying to figure out what to wear."

"Ooo, where something sexy and easy to take off." Abbie says smugly, frowning when a heel comes flying her direction, narrowly missing her head. "You threw that on purpose didn't you?"

Casey turns around and tires to give the brunette her best glare, only for it to be completely futile because of her heavy blushing. "Can you not be a perv for like…five minutes? Five minutes, that's all I ask."

Abbie bursts into laughter and shakes her head in the negative. "I'm not being a perv; I'm just trying to help. Wear something sexy, easy to take off, and wear something even sexier underneath. You never know when you're gonna get lucky." She concludes with a wink.

Casey blushes once more, before she rolls her eyes and proceeds back into her closet. "We're just going to dinner Abbie!"

"I know, I know, but I'm just saying, you never know. You always wanna prepare for that _one line_ that's gonna get you to take your clothes off."

"You're being ridiculous. I'm not like that, and I don't think JJ is either. We're just going to have a nice dinner, and talk. No one said anything about jumping into bed together."

Abbie rolls her eyes and shakes her head before heaving an overdramatic sigh. "Fine, if you say so." She whines. There is a silence between the two of them before a thought crosses her mind and she sits up quickly. "Hey, in all seriousness, I have a question. Hypothetical situation, have you ever thought about going on a date with Alex?"

"Cabot!?" Casey calls back after a long silence.

Abbie narrows her eyes into thin little slits and her lips purse into a thin little line. "…no the other one…" she answers sarcastically.

Casey rolls her eyes and flips her best friend the bird before disappearing back into her closet. "Smart ass." She murmurs loud enough for the other woman to hear. "Between you and me, and I literally mean that this better stay between you and me. But between you and me, when I first starting working as her ADA, I was crushing on her, HARD too. I would have asked her out too, but she treated me like crap, and she hated me, much like now, so I just kind of let it go. So to answer your question, yeah I once did think about what it would be like to go on a date with Alex, but it hasn't been recently. Now, I have a question for you, why do you ask?"

"Uh, no reason. Just a few of us were talking awhile a go, and I think someone said that you and Alex would make a good couple." Abbie lies, praying that her fib isn't transparent.

Casey snorts and shakes her head. "Not hardly. She hates me, I don't think we have anything in common, and did I mention that she hates me?"

Abbie sighs and smacks her head against her forehead. _'Oh my god Cabot, you're a real idiot.' _"Huh, that's…that's interesting. So, have you figured out what you're gonna wear?"

"I don't know, I'm in a cross between my green dress, the midnight blue one, or I'm not sure if I should just wear a black one."

"Which one's strapless!"

"Abbie! I'm being serious!"

Sighing exaggeratedly, Abbie cross examines the choice of dresses. "So was I! But wear the green one, it contrasts perfectly with your hair, and it makes your eyes pop."

Casey exits her closet holding said dress with her eyebrows raised in amusement. "Who knew that you could be such the fashionista?"

"Just don't' tell Serena, she'll take that as a cue to drag me shopping."

**Later That Evening **

Casey has just finished putting on her shoes after having to search for them for like an hour, when she hears a knock at her front door. She blanches and swears loudly when she realizes that Abbie is still in the living room. "Abbie don't you dare answer the door!" she shouts quickly exiting her bedroom.

Abbie freezes about mid stride to the front door and sighs drastically. "Damnit you! I was almost there too!"

"The very last thing that I need is for you to traumatize my date. Go sit down." The redhead responds pointing sternly to the couch, raising her eyebrows when Abbie doesn't move. "Go. Sit." She repeats again, smiling when the taller woman treks her way back through the living room to plop down on the sofa. "Good girl."

Casey makes her way to the door and quickly opens it to reveal JJ in a form fitting dark blue dress holding a small bouquet of flowers. She's be lying if she said that her heart didn't flutter a little. "Wow, you look…amazing. Won't you come in?"

"You don't look so bad yourself, gorgeous." The blonde replies with a slightly bashful smile as she steps through the door and holds out the flowers. "These are for you."

"Wow, they're beautiful."

"Aren't you two cuuuuute!" Abbie's voice rings out loudly through the living room causing both women to turn a light shade of pink.

Casey places the flowers in a face, all the while discretely swatting her best friend in the head. "Aheh, you remember Abbie, right Jennifer?"

JJ smiles awkwardly as she involuntarily begins to profile the brunette who seems to be analyzing her. "Right, how could I not?"

"Yeah, Abbie was just leaving." Casey says quickly, praying for her best friend to get the hint.

Abbie rolls her eyes and stands up from her spot on the couch. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going. Have fun! Don't do anything that I wouldn't do."

**Restaurant **

"Alex, I can't believe that we're doing this…." Serena whines as she picks up her menu.

Alex narrows her eyes and peers over her own menu watching the table that's further away but still in her line of sight. "I already told you I'd pay, get whatever."

"Great, then I'll order a steak…a big one…" the younger blonde murmurs as she looks at the most expensive part of the menu. "Alex, this is ridiculous, and borderline stalk-ish….are you even listening to me.?!

"Look at her…" Alex grumbles, grinding her teeth as she watches JJ say something that makes Casey laugh. "She thinks she's so funny, and cool, and everything…so she carries a gun, so what…"

Serena rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disapproval. "Why did I let you talk me into this…Alex, look, our waitress is gonna be back any minute and I'm pretty sure she's expecting us to actually, hmm, I don't know, order? Do you know what you want?...Hello?...ALEXANDRA!"

"AH, what?!" Alex shouts back, startled by Serena shouting her name. "I'm sorry, I was listening….what'd you say?"

"This really was a bad idea. What is spying on them going to accomplish?"

"I just don't understand what's so great about…_her_…"

"Maybe because she had the courage to ask Casey out on a date? And you know, actually acts like she shows some sort of interest in Casey? You know Alex, Jennifer really isn't that bad of a person."

"She is for Casey…" the elder attorney grumbles, finally tearing her eyes back to her menu. Though she would never care to admit it, she's sure that her jealous is radiating off of her in vibrant waves.

"The only thing that's stopping me from continuing to argue with you is the fact that you're buying my dinner and trust, I do plan on denting your bank account tonight.." Serena concludes with a smirk as she sees their waitress preparing to take their orders. "Uh yes, we're ready to order, I think I'll have the…"

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

"Wow, so he actually hit you with a shovel?" Casey asks with widened eyes. "That sounds…dangerous, and very painful."

JJ nods her head and winces at the otherwise painful memory at being clocked in the back of the head with a shovel by an unsub. "Yeah, it…wasn't exactly my idea of fun. It didn't help matters that the girl he was working with was going to take my blood either. But that was the very last time I went to interview a potential witness alone."

Casey beams and can't hide the smile that spreads across her face. She doesn't know what it is, but there is just something about the woman in front of her that makes her smile. "So, is your job always that eventful, for lack of a better term?"

"It depends I guess. Some cases are real simple and don't require that much effort, others you find yourself chasing a guy into a sewer. It just varies. Believe it or not, my least favorite part is the paperwork."

"Tell me about it, most of my job consists only of paperwork. If I'm not filling out paperwork, I'm making copies of it, or I'm reading through it about ten times before I can go get Alex's signature on it."

JJ raises her eyebrows at the mention of the EADA once again. "She really works you hard huh?"

Casey rolls her eyes and huffs as she sits back in her chair. "You have no idea. It's like I'm her slave monkey. 'Get my coffee, file my paper work, go to the precinct to get this' that's basically what I hear all day. Her assistant, Kate has more break time than I do. And you want to know what else? She hardly ever says thank you. Sometime about a week ago, I brought her coffee after I was drenched in the rain and you know what she did? She looked at it and flat out said 'it's cold'. No 'thank you for the coffee' or anything like that…she's just so damn frustrating sometimes."

"Mmmm, sounds like all the time." Jennifer murmurs before she takes a small sip of her water. Her eyes flicker to the door, and scan over the rest of the restaurant before her eyes land on something, or rather someone she isn't really surprised to see. '_Great….'_ "Casey, do you know that saying that goes something like 'speak of the devil, and she shall appear?"

"Yeah, why…?" Casey narrows her eyes in confusion, and she spins in her seat, following JJ's line of vision. She groans when she sees Alex and Serena seated at a table a little ways away, and the two seem to be quietly bickering over something. "Ugh…why are they here…" she groans again.

"We can leave…" JJ suggests, watching the two blondes across the room. "Oh no…" she murmurs as she watches Alex stand up from her seat, with Serena stumbling to keep her from moving.

"She's coming over here isn't she?" Casey mumbles, placing her hands over her eyes. Why now, why can't she go on a simple date with out Alex being there. Hell, she already makes her work life a living hell, why does she have to interfere in her personal one as well.

She watches as JJ's indignant expression morphs into a wide smile of faux excitement. _'God she's good'_ "Alex! What're…what're you doing here?" Casey asks as she tries to maintain a positive facial expression.

"Oh you know, Serena and I just thought we would catch a casual dinner, that's all." Alex replies smiling.

"Casual…here…?" JJ says skeptically, her training beginning to kick in as she begins to study Alex's facial expressions and bodily posture. She notices that the tall blonde continues to wring her hands and nervously shift her weight from one leg to the other, something that she files away to look into at a later date.

Alex rolls her eyes before turning to the agent, with a faux smile of her own gracing her lips. "Yes, _Jennifer_, this is quite casual for me. Something you wouldn't know anything about."

"You need to chill, I was simply asking a question."

"I was simply answering it."

"What is your problem with me? I don't even know you." JJ states firmly, suddenly feeling like she's been back into a corner.

Alex's gaze hardens and it seems like her steel eyes darken to shade that resembles that of a thunderstorm. "I have several problems with you, but we'd be here all night if I listed them all."

This is one of those moments where JJ is glad that she isn't carrying her gun. Thankfully, Casey steps in before she gets a chance to backfire with what she really wants to say, oh and boy was she about to let Alex have.

"Actually, Jennifer and I were just leaving." The Casey says flatly, cutting into the dispute between the two. She watches the two blondes stare at each other in a stand off that resembles that off two alpha females, before she lightly tugs on JJ's hand.

Alex glares after the two exiting the restaurant when she turns and is met from a glare coming from Serena. "What?"

"Don't you 'what' me. I distinctively said NOT to come over here, and what'd you do? You didn't listen that's what you did."

"I like to think of my listening as…selective."

* * *

"I am so sorry about…her." Casey apologizes for probably the tenth time that night. She has no idea what Alex's problem is, and after practically ruining her date tonight, she sure as hell isn't going to let it go.

"It's fine." Jennifer lies perfectly. Of course it isn't fine, and she is beginning to resent Alex for meddling in her business, but she doesn't want Casey to feel bad about something that isn't her fault. "I'm sure that she had the best of intentions…what ever those may be."

Scoffing playfully, Casey shakes her head as she fishes for the keys to her apartment. "Well, when you figure out what those intentions are, let me know." she jokes, before her tone turns serious. "I really did have a good time with you tonight; I hope we can do it again sometime soon."

The agent smiles herself and mentally pats herself on the back for not screwing up the date like she had so thought she would. "I would really like that, yes." She murmurs softly.

There is a pregnant silence between the two before JJ swallows the lump in her throat and slowly leans in closer to Casey's lips. She holds the position for a moment, their lips only inches apart, as if to silently give the attorney the option to turn back.

Upon feeling that she isn't going to move, JJ takes it as an initiative to slowly press her lips to Casey's in a chaste kiss. A kiss that doesn't stay chaste for too long, as the blonde soon feels fingers skillfully tangle themselves into her hair as the kiss begins to deepen.

**Hmmm…I'm not quite sure if that counts as a cliffie or not. I'm sure that some of you will say you do. Hahaha. **

**Personal shout out to Stussy and your reviews: I personally feel that Alex deserved negative points on this one lol. **

**Also, I received an inspirational assistance up there from a Criminal Minds episode. I just so happened to be watching one episode where some dude did hit JJ in the head with a shovel. So I thought 'hey, let's use that!' so I didn't make it up. Anyway, leave a review? **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Only one update again today guys, mainly because I am super exhausted with trying to get a whole lot of things done AND trying to keep up with writing, so bear with me here, thanks!**

If it was a month ago, and someone had told Casey that she would be in her bedroom, withering and moaning beneath a very sexy FBI Agent after probably two and a half hours of amazing, mind blowing sex; she would have referred the person to weekly, no, daily visits with Dr. Huang. But, nevertheless, that's where she is, her fingers tangled in blonde hair as JJ pays extraordinary attention to all of the sensitive parts of her body.

"Mmmm, has anyone ever told you that you are an amazing lover?" Casey groans out as her nails lightly scrape over the blonde's body, down her back, tracing a trail to abs that have been perfected and maintained due to extensive training. "God, your abs are amazing."

"So I have been told…about both of those things." JJ replies smugly as she gently nips on the bruise that has already formed near Casey's pulse point due to her earlier ministrations. She smirks against the skin as she nips her way up the column of Casey's neck, then down her jaw line, tracing a pattern until she stops just shy of the redhead's lips. Slightly propping herself up by her hands, she smiles down at the woman beneath her, admiring her beauty. "Good god you're so beautiful."

Casey blushes heavily and her eyes avert elsewhere in the darkness of the room. She can't exactly remember the last time that someone sincerely told her that she was beautiful; especially if it was during sex. She shifts in the bed as all of her insecurities of sleeping with someone begin to surface once more. Is this just going to be a cheap, lust induced one night stand? Is Jennifer going to leave after she falls asleep? Or worse, is she going to leave before? The questions are endless.

JJ tilts her head to the side as she begins analyzing Casey's sudden change in mood and facial expressions. It's almost as if the attorney is suddenly looking extremely insecure, pained, deflated, and it can only be chalked up to one thing. "Hey, I won't leave unless you tell me too." She whispers softly, before leaning down to capture the woman's lips in a soft yet passionate kiss.

Casey whimpers into the kiss, and tangles her fingers in the agent's hair once more, pulling her closer. Her whimper turns into a pleasured moan when she feels the slickness of a tongue beginning to dance with her own. In fact, both women are so engrossed in the kiss, that the blaring ring of a cell phone nearly scares the both of them have to death.

"Shit." JJ swears irritably under her breath as she pulls away from the kiss. This is definitely one of those times when she hates that she has a job that requires for her to always keep her phone on. She leans over the side of the bed, and blindly searches through the pile of clothes for the offending object. Finally, her fingers hit the coolness of the phone, and she quickly puts it to her ear, her tone sounding a little less than inviting. "Jareau…"

"Jayje! Where are you! Em and I are worried sick!" Garcia's bubbly voice damn near shouts through the receiver.

JJ looks at Casey apologetically before she scowls at the phone as if it is the one at fault for Penelope's impeccable timing. "I'm busy Garcia…." She grumbles darkly, trying to make the conversation as short as possible.

But unfortunately, she forgot that she's talking to Penelope Garcia, and that woman can hold a ten minute long conversation with a post. "What do you mean you're bu-OH!"

"I _told_ you she was getting it in…" Emily's amused voice says in the back ground.

"I'm going to hang up now." JJ mutters, blushing heavily which in turn causes Casey to giggle. "Bye Garcia…."

"But JJ, I wasn't done asking you abou-*click*"

Jennifer rolls her eyes and tosses her phone back on the floor, frustrated at being interrupted, but at the same time thankful that it wasn't anything work related.

"Bad timing?" Casey asks smirking, enjoying how flustered the typically composed agent became from a phone call.

"You have no idea." JJ replies rolling her eyes before a smirk of her own spreads across her lips. "Now, where were we?"

**Serena Southerlyn's Apartment **

"I still cannot believe that you actually had the nerve to do that." Serena says scornfully as she and Alex exit the elevator on her floor.

Alex shrugs nonchalantly and makes an indifferent face. "I thought I handled it rather well. It was Jennifer who started it."

Serena stops walking and she turns to Alex, giving her an incredulous look. "YOU went over to THEIR table after I specifically told you NOT to. If anything it was YOUR fault. God, Casey was probably so embarrassed; I know I would have been. You practically ruined her date."

"I did not ruin it Serena; stop being so melodramatic. I was simply going to say hi, when Jennifer had to get testy with me. You know, I really don't see why everyone thinks she's so great. 'oh I know more than ten fighting styles' so what?"

"I'm almost pretty sure that she didn't say it like that. I was there, Kim asked, she answered. Get a grip will you? Stop being jealous because you don't get what you want."

Alex rolls her eyes and leans against the wall as she watches Serena dig out the keys to her apartment. "I just know that I feel like getting super drunk and passing out on your couch right now."

Serena grumbles incoherently as she pushes open the door and goes inside leaving Alex to lock up. Upon stepping into the living room, her eyes narrow upon seeing three people sprawled various places in her living room. "Are you kidding me…Abbie! What have I told you about partying at MY apartment?! I didn't give you a key just so you could come and trash all of my stuff."

"Chill out babe. We didn't break anything, and we're not drunk…yet." Abbie replies smirking.

"We are not twenty one year olds Abbie, I only came because you said we were gonna watch bridesmaids." Kim murmurs shoving Abbie over on the sofa.

"How was dinner?" Olivia asks curiously, upon noticing the two women who have no fully entered the living room.

Serena glances at Alex and waves her hands towards their friends before she plops down in her arm chair. "Go ahead Alex. Tell em. How was dinner?"

Alex sighs and awkwardly runs her hands through her hair as she shifts from one leg to the other. "Um, well, we were at the restaurant, and we ran into Casey on her date…"

"Ran into?" Abbie interrupts, skeptically raising her eyebrows.

"Okay, so we kind of followed them there…and I may have sort of ruined her date…"

There is a collective grown from the three women who have just now been clued in on the situation. There is a series of mass mumbling and head shaking before Kim speaks up over the silence. "And where in your brain did you think that was a good idea?"

"You guys know how jealous she gets!" Serena exclaims, throwing her arms in the air. "I strictly told her NOT to go over to their table, and what did she do? She did it anyway."

"I'm pretty sure all of us have told her that she just should have asked Casey out in the first place, instead of all of this beading around the bush stuff." Liv mumbles, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Uh, hello?!" Alex exclaims, a little offended that they're talking as if she isn't even in the room.

Abbie turns her head away from the conversation and gives the blonde a wave and a wide smile. "Hi Alex!"

Folding her arms tightly, Alex shrinks into her chair and looks elsewhere in the room. "All of you make me sick."

"Have you ever thought about just telling her how you feel? It would make things so much easer on you." Kim suggests simply, her tone void of sarcasm for probably the first time in her life.

Alex shakes her head and sighs heavily before she lets her head fall back against the chair. "It isn't that simple for me, especially now since she's dating super agent from hell."

The four other women look between each other before they turn and question in unison, "When is something ever simple for you?!"

**The Next Morning (Although slightly afternoon); The Plaza Hotel **

JJ closes her eyes as she slides the cardkey into the door of the hotel room. All she's been doing on her drive back to the hotel is pray that Emily and Garcia are out finding some sort of trouble to get into in the streets of New York; anything to keep them from pestering her about her whereabouts of the night before.

She pushes the door open and her heart drops down to her shoes when she realizes that both of her best friends are very well wide awake and are both staring smugly at the door as if they were just waiting for her to walk in. Stepping through the door, JJ refuses eye contact with either of them as she sets out to put on a fresh change of clothes. "No questions."

"Pfft, yeah right no questions." Emily snorts causes Garcia to snicker smugly. "So how was it?"

"It was nice, we had dinner, with the exception of a small…interruption, but dinner was nice, yes." The blonde agent replies dismissively, still not looking at either of the women.

"C'mon Jay, don't play dumb, you know what we wanna hear. How was the sex?" Penelope asks blandly, having no shame from the words that have just left her mouth.

Jennifer blushes faintly, and purses her lips into a thin line. "Who's saying that we had sex?"

"Now you're just lying. Why else wouldn't you have come back last night? And why did you so sound oh so overly irritated when we called? What were you busy doing Jennifer?"

"More like who was she busy doing…"

JJ narrows her eyes at her two best friends and purses her lips together tightly. She knows for a fact she can't lie, Emily is a profiler, and Garcia…hell, Garcia is something worse than a profiler. "Fine, we had sex, and it was amazing, and we're going to try to keep seeing each other. There, end of story."

There is a silence in the room before it is interrupted by Garcia's over excited squeal and her rushing over to pull JJ into a bone crushing hug. "Ohhh, gumdrop, I'm so glad that everything turned out okay!" she squeals before she pulls away sniffling. "My little sugarplum is growing up!"

"Garcia, you say that every time either of us gets a date." Emily deadpans, throwing her hands up in defense when the flamboyant blonde shoots her a death glare. "Point retracted…"

"ANYWAY." JJ says loudly, interrupting the dispute before it can get started. "That's all that happened, it was fine. She's really amazing you know? She's beautiful, and smart, and hilarious, and I really enjoy being around her. I'm just worried about her boss though."

"What's her boss got to do with anything?"

"Besides she is the pure definition of 'the devil'? I don't know. She has a problem with me, and I haven't quite figured out what it is. I mean, she practically interrupted my date with Casey last night, and she started giving me attitude for literally no reason."

Garcia's face contorts into thinking as she tries to piece things together in her mind. "Are you talking about that tall blonde who always looks like she's pissed off at everyone, and there is this cold chill before she enters a room?"

"Yeah, that's her…" JJ mumbles darkly. She notices there is a silence, as she watches Garcia's face contort into even more concentration. "What're you thinking?"

"Oh, what? No, nothing, I'm not thinking anything…nope!"

"…Garciaaaaaa…."

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan **

"Abbie I need a favor." Alex says stepping into the brunette's office unannounced.

Abbie looks up from where she's seated at her desk and tilts her head to the side in confusion. "Alex, it's Sunday, how did you know I was here?"

"I asked around, now, about that favor I need…"

"What do you want…?"

Alex grins broadly and tries to put on her most innocent expression. "So, you're Casey's best friend and all…right?"

Abbie narrows her eyes in skepticism but nods nonetheless. "Yeah…?"

"And she tells you pretty much anything right…?" the blonde continues on, a mischievous glint in her eye being given way through her innocent complexion.

"Yes…"

"And she'll listen to you because you're that good of a friend and she trusts you right…?"

"Alex, where is this going…." Abbie sighs, not really sure if she wants to be apart of whatever devious plan that Alex has cooking in that fast little brain of hers. "What do you want…"

"I just want you to find out some things for me." Alex replies, shrugging. "That's all. Maybe relay a few messages, gather information, feed her some information."

Abbie shakes her head vigorously at the request. "No way. Whatever it is you want me to do, I'm sure that it'll wind up getting me in trouble, and Casey hurt."

Alex frowns and sighs heavily and runs her hand through her hair. "Fine, I tried to make this easy on you but obviously you had other intentions. So, I'll tell you what, you do what I ask, and I _don't_ tell Serena about that stripper."

Abbie pales completely, her eyes widen, and her jaw practically hits her desk. "Wh-what're you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about…"

"I think you do know what I'm talking about, after all, mistakes happen right? So, do we have a deal."

Sighing heavily, Abbie stares at her hands before she nods her head in defeat and resignation. She doesn't know why, but she feels like she's just made a deal with the devil.

**Alex has a plan. Whether it's a good one or a bad one well...you're just gonna have to wait and see :3 leave a review? **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: This chapter is….the ending is…whoa. That's all I'm gonna say :3**

**Casey Novak's Apartment **

Casey shifts uncomfortably for probably the tenth time in the past ten minutes of the dreaded awkward silence. She glances over to her right once again and shifts again when she realizes that she's still being stared at. "Will you stop staring at me?!"

"I can't help it!" Abbie exclaims, eyes still wide in shock. "You have a hickey the size of Texas on your neck!"

Casey turns crimson red, a shade that is equivalent to that of her hair color and she quickly reaches up to place her hand over her neck. "Don't look at it…" she mumbles, feeling her face heat up even more when she still feels Abbie's eyes on her.

"How can I not look at it?! There is this huge ass bruise on your neck!...you slept with her didn't you?"

"No, of course not, why would you think that?"

Abbie's eyes narrow and her lips purse into a small thin line, as she stares holes into her best friend. "You're lying."

"I'm not lying Abbie, I didn't sleep with her." Casey knows that she is telling a boldfaced lie, but the last thing that she wants is for Abbie to tease her something that she's feeling pretty sensitive over at the time.

"…then where'd the hickey come from?"

"We might've kissed, a little here and there, but we didn't sleep together." '_Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it…'_ she silently pleads in her head as she watches Abbie continue to stare her down.

Eventually, Abbie pulls back and she sits back further into the chair that she's sitting in. "I still feel like you're lying to me, but whatever Novak, whatever floats your boat. So um…how was your date?"

A smile involuntarily crosses Casey's lips and she begins to shyly wring her hands, tearing her eyes away from the brunette's meaningful gaze. "It was wonderful. Jennifer is really sweet and I really do like her. I think I want to see where this goes."

Abbie swallows the think lump that's formed in her throat, and she suddenly feels her mouth go dry. "U-um, you mean like…a relationship?"

"I don't know, maybe? We're going to talk about it some more the next time we see each other. I haven't been in a relationship so long; maybe it is time that I give it a shot again."

"Uh, maybe that's not such a good idea."

Casey tilts her head to the side in confusion, her facial expression mimicking that of a confused puppy who has just been scolded for disobeying a command. "What's not such a good idea?"

Abbie sporadically waves her hands in awkward gestures as she tries to figure out what the hell it is that she wants to say. "I mean, you, and JJ, maybe it's not a good idea."

"Why wouldn't it be? We obviously feel something between us, and it's not like we're pinning over each other."

"Yeah, I know that, but she just seems too…spontaneous for you, ya know?" Abbie stutters out, coming up with things to say as she goes along. "I mean, she's an FBI agent, she's probably always gone, or putting herself in worse danger than we do just by stepping in front of criminals. Hell, she's chasing them down! Plus, doesn't she live in DC or something? That's almost a three and a half hour drive from here!"

Casey's smile falls and she sadly looks at her hands, nervously playing with her fingers as she listens to Abbie's list. "I-I suppose those could be problematic factors, but I think we could make it work. I want to make it work…"

Abbie closes her eyes tightly and forces herself to take an agitated sounding deep breath. "What if it doesn't work? I think that it'd be simpler if you just stop it before it starts. I think you're only setting yourself up to get hurt."

"Abbie what are you taking about? I actually think that I would be really happy with her. She says I'm beautiful and she actually acts like she likes me."

"Yeah, unlike someone I know…" Abbie mutters out loud, wincing when she realizes that she was actually thinking out loud and her thoughts weren't confined to her mind like she had intended.

Casey frowns and her eyes narrow as she tries to catch the meaning of her best friend's words. "What was that?"

The brunette quickly shakes her head and averts her gaze somewhere else in the room. "Nothing." She snips.

"What are you nervous about…?"

"I'm not…I'm not nervous."

"Abbie, I've known you for a long time now, and I know you well enough to be able to tell when you're nervous. You're leg only bounces up and down like that when you're nervous." Casey explains, motioning towards Abbie's leg that is repeatedly bouncing again the floor

Abbie glances at her bouncing leg and quickly crosses her other leg over it to keep it still. "I'm sorry, just thinking that's all. Work stuff, and…yeah." She lies, praying that Casey is going to let her little slip up go.

Unfortunately, Casey is having absolutely none of it. "Okay. But, what did you mean 'unlike someone you know'? What was that?"

"Case, it's nothing just let it go."

"Then why would you say it?"

"I don't know Casey." Abbie groans, covering her eyes with both hands, dreading that she's been put into this position. "I just don't think you should go out with Jennifer again, there, I said it."

Casey suddenly becomes very defensive and she shoots off of the couch and begins to pace her living room, a habit of her own that she's never learned to break. "Why do you keep saying that? There's nothing wrong with her, or is your problem with the fact that she's actually interested in me? I'm not completely incapable of being loved you know, every now and then there is someone who could be interested."

"Casey, that's not what I'm saying. I just think she's bad for you."

"But why? You keep saying that but you have yet to give me a real reason, and why does it matter? Since when have you gotten a say in who I go out with? You're my best friend, aren't you supposed to support my decisions?"

Shaking her head, Abbie stands from her seat and places her hands on Casey's shoulders to keep her from pacing. She flinches and recoils when the redhead basically rips herself from her grasp. "Casey, I'm not trying to make a decision for you. I'm trying to help you because I AM your best friend. She'll hurt you Case, you know she will."

Anger flashes in Casey's eyes and she honestly can't believe what she's hearing. How is it that her best friend who is supposed to stand by her, and support her is saying things like this? "I would think that you'd be happy for me, since I've actually found someone. Weren't you telling me that I need to get out more? That I need to date more? Well, that's what I'm trying to do, but you're telling me that someone that I feel like I could actually have something special with is bad for me! I can't believe you…get out."

Abbie groans and runs her fingers through her hair out of frustration. "C'mon Case, don't…"

"I'm serious Abigail, get out. I don't want to see you right now. Leave." She responds quickly, stalking over to the window.

Sighing heavily, Abbie gives her best friend one last pleading look before she makes her way back across the living room and leaves.

Standing stationary for the longest of times, Casey soon finds her self holding back tears. She has no idea why she's crying, but at the same time, she has no idea why Abbie would say things like that. Making a quick decision, she moves back across the room and makes a quick phone call.

"Hey…um, is there any chance that you could come over right now?"

**Alex Cabot's Apartment **

Alex paces back and forth continuously, murmuring to herself as her mind seems to race at about a thousand miles an hour. She knows that the very last thing she should have done is blackmail Abbie into doing something for her, but damnit she was desperate at the time, and desperate times call for desperate measures even if it means resorting to blackmail…right?

"This is so fucking stupid." She mutters irritably, dragging her hands roughly through her hair. "Why can't I just fucking tell her how I feel…I'm not a freaking teenager, I'm a grown woman, this shouldn't be that hard. Ugh, then there's stupid Jennifer who just makes everything worse. She thinks she's so great, well I don't see what's so great about her. She thinks she can just waltz right in here like this, and just do whatever the hell she wants. Well, she's wrong. There's nothing that she has that I don't have, except maybe a gun, but what's so amazing about that? I just don't understand what Casey sees in her anyway. I mean, why can't she see that once this is all over, Jennifer is just going to go back to DC and forget all about her? They wouldn't last. Christ, I wonder if Abbie has gotten anywhere with Casey at all or if she just completely chickened out. Theoretically, shouldn't I have already told Serena about that stripper anyway? Abbie should be thanking me for doing her a favor. But at the same time, is she even getting done what I need to be done? This is so ridiculous. I wish Jennifer would just disappear and never come back again, it would make things in my life so much easier right now. Maybe I'll go see Casey and try to talk to her. Maybe even apologize for kinda sorta ruining her date last night. I cannot believe that I have been standing here talking continuously to myself for the past fifteen minutes. I am so messed up."

Groaning, Alex stalks across the living room and snatches her keys off of the counter. She knows for a fact that she has to talk to Casey, hell, she NEEDS to talk to Casey, but can she talk to her and finally admit her feelings with out sounding like a complete idiot?

She's been driving in her car for about ten minutes when her cell phone vibrating in the passenger seat nearly scares the living hell out of her. Grumbling, she picks up the device and quickly answers it. "Hello?"

"I really hate doing your dirty work, and I hope you know it may have just lost me my best friend." Abbie says seriously, her voice void of any its usual underlying humor and or sarcasm.

Alex rolls her eyes and huffs greatly, succeeding in irritating the brunette on the other end of the line. "She'll forgive you I'm sure, just give her some time. You benefit from this too you know, in a way. Anyhow, what'd you say to her?"

"What you fucking told me to say. Look, Alex, I don't know about you, but I'm really feeling like this is a bad idea. Why can't you just tell her and face the consequences? It'll make things a hell of a lot easier, on everyone."

"I don't know, I'm going over there to talk to her now. Good timing too, since you've derailed her from her 'trail o' Jennifer'."

Abbie snorts humorlessly and Alex can tell for a fact that the other woman is a little less than pleased by her tactics. Oh well. "I wouldn't exactly say derailed, but whatever floats your boat…I've gotta go buy something super shiny and super expensive for Serena, seeing as I refuse to be your scapegoat any longer. Goodbye Alex."

Alex opens her mouth to say something more but snaps it shut when she hears the line go dead. Okay, maybe she should have expected that, but at least she's going to try and fix things, right?

**Meanwhile…**

Casey wraps her arms tighter around herself when she hears the soft knock on her door. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she makes her way to the door and swings it open, plastering a somewhat believable smile across her face. "Hey…" she says quietly, her eyes slightly averting to the floor. "Come in?"

JJ tilts her head to the side, but follows Casey into her apartment nonetheless. She takes a seat on the sofa, and her blue eyes narrow as she watches Casey's green ones dart all over the place. "What's wrong?" she asks curiously, hoping that she hasn't done anything wrong.

Casey stays silent for a long moment before she opens and closes her mouth several times; trying to make sense of what it is she wants to say. "I-I think we need to talk…"

"Okay, I'm listening." The blonde says curiously, but continues on before another word is got in. "Before you start though, if this is about last night, I just thought I'd say that I don't regret anything that happened, and it did mean something…"

A bashful smile crosses Casey's lips and she can't hide the blush that creeps its way down her neck. "No, it's not about that. I mean, it sort of is but not entirely. And it meant something to me too. I kind of have bruises everywhere as a reminder." She murmurs, her hand involuntarily to the hickey on her neck.

JJ blushes as well and awkwardly clears her throat. "Oh…um, sorry about that."

"It's fine, but that's not really what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about, us, this, whatever this is. I'm sorry if I'm not good at this, I just-I guess I was just wondering where you stand with this."

"As in, was this just a fling while I'm on vacation, or do I really want to try to build a relationship with you..."

Casey nods her head shakily, and nervously begins to wring her hands. "I-yeah, that's what I meant…"

JJ smiles and softly takes one of Casey's hands in her own, succeeding in breaking the nervous habit for the time being. "Look Casey, I'm sorry if I have off the wrong impression, but I really like you. I like you, I like spending time with you, and I really do feel something for you. I want to try this, but if you need some time, I'll understand."

Casey smiles brightly and nods her head, fearing that she couldn't come up with words even if she wanted to. There is a silence between them as if some sort of gravitational pull draws them closer to each other. JJ holds them, lips only millimeters apart, and she continuously glances down at Casey's lips.

"This…this could be very long distant at some points." She whispers huskily, feeling the warmth of their breath bounce off of one another.

"I'm okay with that." Casey responds with some new found confidence.

"And my job…it-it's dangerous."

"So is mine."

"Are you sure you want this?"

"Jennifer, all I want right now is to know why you haven't kissed me yet."

There are no more words spoken between the two as their lips collide together in a heated lip lock. The kiss deepens and heats up in a matter of seconds, and Casey soon finds herself on her back once again beneath a probably too sexy FBI Agent. Its all so much so fast but she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't enjoying every moment of it.

"Jen, I already have enough hickies." She pants out, her skin feeling like it's on fire as she feels soft hands slip beneath her shirt.

"I'll try not to bite so much this time." JJ murmurs, nuzzling Casey's neck softly and smirking when she comes into contact with yet another well placed bruise.

The sharp knocking on the door startles both women and it in turn causes JJ to tumble to the floor with an uncomfortable 'thud'.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Casey pants, helping the agent to her feet before she quickly goes to the door, wondering who the hell would be visiting her. She quickly undoes the locks and yanks the door open, only to be met with someone that she hadn't even begun to think about seeing. "Alex?"

JJ's eyes narrow as she becomes aware of the identity of this so called 'visitor'. Honestly, she's beginning to think that Alex is literally trying to become the bane of her existence. Settling on the couch, she decides it's best to try and keep the evident scowl off her face.

"Um, I actually really need to talk to you, can I come in?" Alex asks nervously, glancing at the floor, suddenly feeling very ashamed for what she's done to Abbie.

Casey glances over her shoulder and leans against the doorframe. "Actually, I don't think now is a really good time, can we talk later?"

"But, Casey, it's really important. Please?"

Sighing heavily, Casey awkwardly scratches the back of her head as she moves to the side to let Alex in. She closes her eyes and says a silent prayer hoping that this isn't one of her worst life decisions.

Alex freezes in the middle of the living room and she fails miserably to hide her expression of disdain. "What are you doing here…" she growls darkly, venom seeping through her words.

"I could ask you the same question." Jennifer responds curtly, matching the attorney in her venomous tone.

Casey steps into the room to intervene but as soon as she does, her phone ringing from another room interrupts her. She reluctantly excuses herself and hesitantly slinks out the room to take the hopefully quick phone call.

"I think it would be best if you left." Alex says flatly once she's sure that Casey is out of earshot.

JJ raises her eyebrows and laughs bitterly at Alex's attempt to intimidate her. "I think you're the one that needs to leave. Haven't you barged in enough already?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean how you intentionally tried to ruin my date with Casey? I've seen the way that you look at her, and I've seen the way that you look at me, you're not fooling anybody, Cabot."

Alex's eyes narrow into thin slits, and she clenches her hands into fists so tight that her nails nearly draw blood from digging into her skin. "Stay out of my business. Nothing here concerns you, so why don't you just go back to where you came from?"

JJ gets off of the couch and quickly invades Alex's personal space. "I don't take orders from you, and I won't take any of your shit either. I'm getting really tired of you showing up like this. So why don't you do Casey and I a favor and back the fuck off."

Blue eyes stare intently into each other and if looks could kill, both women would definitely be buried six feet under. Alex grits her teeth tightly and her knuckles are turning white from being clenched.

"I'm not afraid of you Jareau, and you _need_ to get out of my face." she demands darkly, leaving no room for question.

JJ however doesn't back down, as she is determined to show Alex that she isn't afraid of her in the slightest.

"Make me."

**Ohhhhh snap! Ooooo cliffhanger isn't it?! Lol, leave a review? **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hmm, I fast forwarded a little in the middle of this chapter, but it helps to progress the story and even add a little irony. Now, hope ya like it!**

Casey sighs as she hangs up the spontaneous phone call that she received from Liz about something work related. She supposes that it could be worse than being asked to come in for something, especially on a weekend. Sighing once more, she places her phone back on the counter, and exits the kitchen to see whatever it is Alex desperately needs to speak to her about. As soon as she steps out of the kitchen, her heart stops and she regrets having to take the call in the first place. _'Oh no…' _

Acting quickly, Casey crosses the living room, and steps in between the two blondes who both look like they're seconds away from killing each other. She places her hands on JJ's shoulders, and gives a gently shove, prompting the agent to reluctantly take a few steps back.

"I don't know what's going on, but I highly request that it stop." Casey says firmly, glancing between the two women who still haven't taken their eyes off of each other. "Please?"

Both women relax upon hearing Casey's gentle request, and it isn't until then that Alex fully realizes the attentive markings on the redhead's neck. a large lump forms in her throat, and she has to main maintain her hard facial expression, to keep from looking wounded; especially in front of Jennifer.

"Casey, I really do need to talk to you…Privately." She requests sincerely, concluding with a pointed glare towards the agent.

JJ scowls and defensively wraps her arm around Casey's waist. She knows that they literally just decided on getting together, but whenever Alex is around, she feels like every second needs to count, and the elder attorney needs to be reminded of where her place is. "Anything that you need to say in front of her, you can say in front of me." she all but growls, slightly satisfied when she sees Alex's facial expression falter from her defensive gesture.

Casey doesn't know what it is about JJ, but there is something about that woman that is just able to make her blush over literally almost anything. She dips her head slightly, and gently places her hand over the hand that is resting protectively on her hip. She then snaps back to reality and then realizes that she really does need to intervene in the situation. Sighing, she turns her head back to Alex to address her request. "Uh, if it really is that important, we can talk in the kitchen."

A small smile crosses Alex's lips, and she nods her head in agreement as she makes her way into the kitchen. Jennifer however is in total disagreement of the situation, and she still holds Casey to her, even after she's made a move to follow Alex into the kitchen.

"Jen, it'll be fine, what ever it is, I'm sure that it's work related." Casey says, placing a soft kiss to the blonde's lips. "Just stay here okay?"

JJ huffs and releases her hold on Casey, crossing her arms tightly across her chest as she watches her now girlfriend enter the kitchen to have a one on one talk with the devil. "Yeah, work related…right."

"So what did you need to talk about that's so important." Casey says folding her arms, finally letting her irritation with Alex show in full. She is still pissed off from how her date was nearly ruined at Alex's courtesy.

Alex sighs and nods her head, taking note of Casey's sharp and biting tone with her. She knows that she deserves it, hell, for probably more than one thing too, but not all things need to be mentioned. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for interrupting your date like that, it was rude of me, and completely uncalled for, and I apologize."

"Is that all you wanted?" Casey quips after a small silence. Sure she knows she should be grateful that Alex even had the decency to finally apologize for something she's done, but that doesn't make her any less angry about her ruined date.

"Um…no, actually, it's not, but before I continue, are you…seeing her?" the blonde asks curiously, her voice laced with a tone that Casey can't even recognize.

Casey hesitates for a moment before she protectively wraps her arms around herself and nods her head. Truth be told, she's slightly waiting for another demeaning verbal attack she received from Abbie, and she'd be lying if she said that she wouldn't expect the same thing from Alex. "Yes…yes, I am. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, nothing, I was just, ah, wondering, that's all. So you're seeing her…"

"Yes, I am seeing her now. Is that going to be a problem? I don't know what it is between the two of you, but it's really making me uncomfortable. What do you two have against each other?"

Alex shrugs, and averts her eyes elsewhere in the room, anything to keep her from maintaining eye contact with the beautiful green eyes that she's fallen so deeply in love with. "It-it doesn't matter." She murmurs, all of her former confidence flying out the window in a matter of seconds.

Casey raises her eyebrows but quickly dismisses it as something she is sure that she doesn't want to know about. "Well, did you want anything else?"

"No…no, I'll just, go. Once again, I'm sorry." Alex murmurs sadly before she exits the kitchen. She doesn't cast a second glance at JJ and proceeds to see herself out, leaving the two women very confused in her wake.

"What was that about?" JJ asks, as she feels arms wrap around her waist and a chin rest on her shoulder.

Shaking her head, Casey hums before she sighs. "In all honesty, I really don't know." she murmurs closing her eyes. "I really don't know."

**Nearly Two Weeks Later **

"Okay, so what's the deal, no one has literally said anything to Abbie all night, and frankly I'm terrified to only because of this." Olivia speaks up once she's sure that Abbie is out of earshot. "I mean, it's not just me is it?"

Casey crosses her arms tightly and looks elsewhere in the bar, taking her attention off something or rather someone she would rather not discuss at the time. Serena simply uncrosses and crosses her legs, before she folds her arms with a rather pissed off expression on her face. Alex rolls her eyes and downs what is probably her fifth drink of the night. Kim just shrugs in confusion, also being left in the dark about what's going on.

"Can someone at least say something? Geez, it's worse than getting locked in a store freezer sitting here with all of you." the agitated detective murmurs, not really enjoying the simultaneous silent treatment from the rest of the table.

"Sorry Liv, it just isn't a good night that's all." Serena mutters, finishing the rest of her beer, a drink that she hasn't exactly had in a while, but what with being single now, she felt like it was a time to get back into it.

"It really isn't." Casey sighs before shaking her head. "Is it really that obvious."

Kim and Olivia nod there heads in unison and makes faces as if to say 'well no duh'.

"Duh, it's obvious! Hell, I think that's why Abbie is taking forever to get her 'refill'. You haven't said a word when the both of you are usually making jokes, Serena, you haven't even looked at her, when the two of you are usually all over each other, and Alex…" Kim pauses taking a look at the blonde who has her head face down on the table. "And I think Alex is drunk…"Alex gives a sloppy thumb up in response before her hand falls carelessly back on to the table. T

Abbie reluctantly slinks her way back to the table and takes her seat between Kim and Olivia, awkwardly twiddling her thumbs at feeling like the outcast of the group.

"SO! What's everybody got planned for Christmas?" Olivia asks, starting a completely new conversation, hoping to change the tone of the night.

"I'm going to visit my sister." Serena says shrugging, probably the first time she's addressed the entire group all night. "I think that we should all do something though, well, with the exception of _some people_."

Abbie visibly deflates in her chair and she is well aware of the fact that she is most definitely the 'some people' that Serena was referring to. She opens her mouth to apologize once again, but after their fight a few nights earlier, she knows that her apology would just fall on deaf ears…again.

Casey frowns as she sees the exchange between the two, but she doesn't say anything. She's sure that it's just a typical lover's quarrel and it'll all blow over soon. It would be looked upon as weird if Serena and Abbie were never fighting, so she's sure whatever is going on can't be that bad.

"What about you Case, any plans with Agent Sexy?" Kim asks smirking, her smirk widening when she sees Casey flush a deep, deep red.

"Um…well yeah actually, we've been seeing each other as much as we can, which is surprisingly quite a lot, and she's asked if I would go down to DC for Christmas." Casey explains smiling bashfully.

There is a collective 'Awwwww' from everyone else at the table all except Abbie who flinches and sinks further down to her seat, and Alex who drunkenly requests for another drink.

"You two are the cutest couple!" Serena squeals in excitement, ignoring the drunk mumbling coming from her left.

"How's the sex?" Kim asks bluntly, curious on whether or not Casey is going to give up some interesting details.

Shaking her head, Casey chuckles nervously and stirs her drink with the straw. "That's classified."

"That good huh?" Olivia quips, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh my god, it is so good we named it."

"How do you name sex?"

"It's possible." Abbie murmurs, speaking up from probably the first time. "Trust me, it's possible."

"ANYWAY," Serena says loudly, snatching the attention away from Abbie before any kind of conversation can be promoted. "Aside from the sex, how is she as a person?"

Casey's face lights up and she sits up in her chair a little, a blinding smile plastered on her face. "She's really amazing. She's super sweet, and soft, and caring. She told me her favorite thing to do is to tell me I'm beautiful."

"Awwwww! That is just too adorable."

The group, or part of it, continues to talk, chat, and laugh before Abbie awkwardly clears her throat and stands from her seat. "It's getting late, I think I'm gonna go." She mutters, not feeling like her presence was wanted anyway.

Olivia glances at her watch and stands from her chair also. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna head out too."

Just as Casey stands up from her own chair, she glances down at the blonde next to her who seems to be murmuring to herself in some sort of foreign language, or just drunk language, she can't be sure. "Wait, what about her?"

"You called it, Case." Kim says, quickly leaving because she the very last person that wants to be dragging a drunk person home.

"Yeaaaah, uh…I gotta…go too…." Olivia states awkwardly backing away.

Casey opens her mouth but snaps it shut as she realizes that everyone has left. Groaning, she reaches down and helps Alex stand up, slightly taken off guard by how drunk she actually is. "Oh god, I cannot believe this…"

Alex murmurs incoherent thoughts all the way through the stumble into the parking lot. She can't see straight, she can't think clearly, and all of her words are coming out as low mumbles that can barely be understood.

"Don't you dare vomit in my front seat Cabot." Casey grumbles as she settles into the driver's side of her car. She watches as Alex leans against the window and groans loudly as if out of frustration.

Casey has been driving for a total of five minutes when she hears Alex groan again, but this time her words are clearly audible.

"God why does everything suck!" the blonde exclaims loudly, her words articulate but she's completely wasted nonetheless. "Everything in my life is just sooooo fucking stupid. I do my work stupid, my love life is stupid, fucking shit, I'M stupid! Why do you put up with me?! Why does anyone put up with me! Fucking hell, I don't even like putting up with me!"

Casey blinks rapidly and she briefly glances at Alex before turning back to the road. She knows for a fact that there are several different kinds of drunks; there are sexual drunks, cuddly drunks, angry drunks, and so many more. She has deduced from the past five minutes that Alex is definitely a depressed drunk.

"Not everything is stupid Alex." She says softly, her voice laced with sincere concern.

"Yes it is! Everything is just so fucking stupid! Gah, I fucking hate everything. But you know what? That's fine, you know why?! Do you know why it's fine that I fucking hate everything Casey?! Ask me why!"

"Why Alex…"

"Because everything fucking hates me! That's why! Everything fucking hates me, and it just looks at me and says 'you know what, fuck you!' that's what my life is. My life is just a big fucking waste."

Even after they've arrived at Alex's apartment, and Casey has dragged her through the door, the ranting still continues. In fact, it's probably even escalated since they've been in the car.

"Everyone hates me, you want to know why?! Shit, of course you know why, because you fucking work for me. I'm an ass. I am a huge ass, and everyone at the fucking DA's office knows it! Hell, I even heard some of the interns talking about how I am a huge ass! Like I don't even know! Do you think that I do it on purpose?!"

Casey really doesn't know how to answer. In fact, she isn't sure whether or not the question is rhetorical, so just to say safe, she settles on shrugging her shoulders. "I-I dunno…"

"Well let me tell you!" Alex shouts, stumbling her way miserably over towards her sofa. "I don't fucking do it on purpose! I can't help it! It's just who I am apparently! Alexandra Elizabeth Cabot is just a huge fucking ass!"

"Alex, you're not an ass, you just don't treat people the best of ways, that's all…"

"Damn right I don't. You know why that is?! I don't like people Casey, god I just fucking HATE people, I am NOT a people person! But you wanna know somethin' else? You're different. You're not like other people. You wanna know why you're not like them? Because I love you! That's why! I am so in love with you!"

Casey's heart stops and she's sure that it has fallen into the depths of her stomach. Her eyes widen in shock and she feels her mouth go completely dry. "Alex stop, you're drunk, and you don't know what you're saying."

Alex shakes her head and just barely catches herself from falling over. "I fucking love you so much it hurts Casey. It hurts all the time because I know that you could never love me. And now you're fucking dating Jennifer Jareau and now I'm left her life the miserable idiot that I am, because I couldn't grow up and fucking tell you how I'm feeling! I couldn't just come to you and ask you on a date because my damn Cabot pride got all in the way! So now you know why I fucking hate her, because she has something that I want more than anything else in the world! She has you."

Casey blinks rapidly as her heart continues to pound hard in her chest. She shakes her head repeatedly and gently guides Alex to lie down on the couch. "N-n-no, you're drunk, and, and you-you don't know what you're saying. Now, you just go to sleep, and I'll see you at work on Monday." She stutters before quickly leaving. She knows that she couldn't stay there and she had to get out as fast as she could.

_'Alex was just drunk, and she just didn't know what she was talking about. She-she doesn't love me. She __**can't**__ love me.' _

**Ughhh guys I am itching to start a new story right now, cuz I have a reeaaally interesting idea, but I told myself that I would finish this one first. *sigh* it's like an itch that I'm not allowed to scratch. Anyway, I just want you all to know that I really do enjoy writing a stupidly drunk Alex, it's so much fun. Anyway, leave a review! **

**Ooo before I go, I wanna ask a little question on this one. There really isn't a reason for me asking, I just wanna know, so leave your answer as well as your review ;) **

**Given the choice between the two, and you could ONLY pick ONE; who would you rather meet, Angie Harmon or Stephanie March? **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Daaaaaammmn Angie received no love from y'all! Lol, I'm just kidding. Anyway, this chapter is a little longer than I expected but whatever. Hope ya like it!**

**Monday **

Monday morning has come far too soon for Casey, and she has been holding up in her office, avoiding Alex like the black plague. Ever since two nights ago, after hearing the blonde's drunken confession, her mind has been all over the place. Mainly, she's been trying to figure out how the same person that treats you like shit for months is the same person that says they've been in love with you the whole time. It just doesn't make any sense.

This is definitely a talk that she would like to have with Abbie, but she and the depressed brunette still aren't on speaking terms, and for the time being, she is okay with that. On several occasions she's contemplated going to speak with Abbie, but she always eventually decides against it.

Then there's the fact that she's only slightly stressing over spending Christmas in DC with her girlfriend. It isn't as if she's never stayed there before, it's just, in their arrangement, JJ has been in New York, a lot more times than Casey has been in DC. Long story short, she still isn't sure what JJ's friends think of her, but she's sure that she's going to have a whole week and a half to find out.

Sighing, she forces her mind back into the work that she knows she can get done before her vacation time. She's been typing for about ten minutes, when her desk phone rings slightly startling her. Reaching over, she takes the phone of the cradle and brings it to her ear. "Novak."

"Hey Casey, um, would you mind coming to my office for a minute? I have something I need to give you."

Casey doesn't respond to the request for the longest of times, and she just blankly stares at a wall in her office. _'So much for trying to avoid her.' _"Uh, y-yeah, sure, I'll be right there."

Swallowing thickly, Casey stands up from her chair, and ever so slowly exits her office. She has absolutely no idea what Alex needs to give her, though she's sure it's probably something work related, but that doesn't want to make her get there any faster. In fact, she's so focused with trying not to get there, she doesn't even realize she's there until she's standing right outside the door.

"You needed to give me something?" she says nervously, stepping into the blonde's office.

Alex looks away from her computer and smiles upon seeing Casey enter her office. She frowns upon seeing how nervous the redhead looks, but she quickly shakes it off. "Yeah, I did, hang on," she says as she fiddles for something in her desk drawer. Seconds later she produces an envelope and hands it to Casey. "Merry Christmas."

Casey frowns as she takes the envelope. She glances at Alex once more before she carefully opens it and feels around for the contents. Moments later, she pulls out two thin strips of paper that she recognizes as tickets. "Oh my god." She whispers as she reads what she's been given. "Alex, this game was nearly impossible to get tickets to, how did you…oh my god…"

Alex shrugs and leans back in her chair. "I remember you telling someone in passing that you really would like to go, and I know you're a Yankees fan, so….yeah. Um, the seats are really good too, I think it said they're directly behind home plate. Oh, there are passes to one of the clubs in there too, I just can't really remember which one."

"These much have cost a fortune…how did you do this?" Casey asks, still in awe of the tickets that she's holding.

Alex chuckles nervously and runs her fingers through her hair. "Um, I know someone." She responds, not intending to come off as trying to lord her money around. Sure they were a little pricey, but it wasn't something that she couldn't handle, and they were definitely worth it. But she feels that it's best not to tell Casey about any of the expenses; they're already taken care of.

"But, there's two tickets here…and you don't like sports."

"Oh, yeah, um, it's a Ranger's game too, so I assumed that you would take Abbie with you…"

Casey stills completely, and she sits completely motionless for a long moment before she shakes her head. "Abbie and I aren't speaking."

Alex flinches and nervously begins to wring her hands. She hadn't realized until now that she really does have a shit load of damage control to do. "Oh, I see, well, you have some time to think about it, so, maybe the two of you will come to terms."

"Yeah, I doubt it." Casey murmurs, allowing a small silence in before she continues on. "Alex, I have a question, do you remember what happened Saturday night?"

Alex narrows her eyes in concentration for a moment before she shakes her head. "Not particularly. I remember that Sunday morning I woke up with a splitting headache, and I assumed that I was completely plastered the night before, but other than that, nothing really. Why?"

Taking a deep breath, Casey shakily fiddles with her fingers, and casts her eyes to the floor. "U-um, you said some things, or rather, you said something…"

"…what did I say." Alex forces out, not really sure if she wants to know what it is that she spilled on Saturday. She knows that she shouldn't have drunk that much, hell, every time she drinks, she ends up doing something completely stupid.

There is a long pregnant silent between the two of them, mainly because Casey doesn't know what she wants to say. No, she knows what she wants to say, she just isn't quite sure how she wants to say it. Finally, she settles on shaking her head as she stands up from her chair. "Nothing, nothing, it's…it's not important. Thank you for the tickets, that was really sweet of you."

Alex exhales and pastes a smile on her face before she nods. "You're welcome, it was nothing really. Um, I hope you have a good Christmas, and a good time in DC."

"Thanks, you have a good Christmas too."

Even after Casey has left, Alex can't help but stare into the emptiness of her office. She honestly can't remember anything about the night she got drunk, but that's expected. She never remembers anything when she gets drunk. Moments later, her cell phone vibrates and her heart practically stops beating upon reading the text she received.

_**'You told me that you are in love with me.' **_

Her heart stops completely and she sinks back into her chair. How could she have been so reckless, and gotten that wasted that she ended up belting out her feelings? Picking up her phone, she types out a quick reply, realizing that she can't hide anymore.

_**'I am.'**_

* * *

Casey stares blankly at her cell phone as she makes her way to the elevator. 'I am'. Is the simple reply that she received, and it's all the confirmation that she needs to know that it's true. She's desperate to talk to someone, anyone, and that's just what she's determined to do.

Stepping off of the elevator, onto the new floor, she quickly makes her down the hall towards Serena's office, stopping when she sees Kim lingering just outside of Liz's office. The closer she gets, she can hear Liz's yelling getting louder, and louder, loud enough to seep through the closed door. "Kim, what are you doing."

"Shh…Liz is letting Abbie have it." the brunette says waving her to be quiet. "She's letting her have it hard too…"

"What? Really? For what?"

"I heard she's lost three cases in a row; which I couldn't believe because I can't even think of a time that Abbie has ever lost a case."

"Huh, weird…" Casey murmurs, listening in to the yelling. Good god, she can't remember the time that she's heard Liz this mad. Okay, well maybe she has, but not for something work related.

Seconds later the door suddenly opens, and Abbie quickly steps out only for it to slam shut moments later. The slam is so loud, that it actually draws the attention of everyone in earshot, including the two women standing by the door.

"What happened?" Kim asks curiously, upon seeing the pained expression on the taller brunette's face.

Abbie glances at Casey briefly before she hands her head and runs her fingers through her hair. "I'm suspended…Liz says that I haven't been focusing like I need to and it's showing up in my work. I've also lost about three cases recently, all should have been easy wins. So, in an act of her rage, she's suspended me. So congrats Kim, you're in charge." She says flatly before walking away.

Kim's jaw drops and she stares after Abbie in complete shock. "Hey! Wait a minute, don't I get a say in this at all!?" she calls out as Abbie continues to ignore her. She sighs heavily and turns to Casey before she starts following the angry woman. "Damnit, sometimes I hate this unit…Abbie! I know you hear me talking to you!"

Casey stares after them for a moment and she contemplates following until she remembers that she had something to do. Quickly rounding another corner she steps into Serena's office unannounced and closes the door behind her.

A slightly startled Serena jumps slightly in her chair but relaxes when she sees that it's only Casey. "Hello to you too. What's up?"

"Uh, well, um, firstly, I just thought I'd tell you that Abbie got suspended." Casey replies awkwardly.

Serena's eyes widen briefly before she squeezes them shut and groans in frustration. "Oh god the workload here is going to be pure hell…it's because of those cases she lost isn't it? God, I don't know what her fucking problem was, it was like she's never prosecuted before in her life."

Casey stays silent for a moment before she tilts her head to the side in confusion. "Are you two okay…?"

"We aren't together." Serena replies quickly, busying herself with something random on the desk to distract her from the topic of interest.

"Oh, I'm sorry…what happened?"

"It's not important. What did you want?"

Seeing that the blonde wishes that they don't discuss her relationship, or better yet, lack thereof, Casey nods her head and nervously clasps her hands together. "Right, um…it's about Alex actually. She told me something the night I took her home from that bar, and…"

"She said she was in love with you." Serena says nodding upon seeing Casey's facial expression. "Well, I should have known that it would take her being drunk to spill her guts, but I'm glad she finally told you. It was killing her."

"So she is…" Casey murmurs quietly, hanging her head low. "and she didn't tell me earlier…"

"She was scared, believe it or not; completely terrified to tell you. We all tried to get her to, but she always came off with some lame excuse on why she would. But now that you're dating Jennifer, Alex gets super drunk and finally tells you. It's pretty ironic really."

"Yeah…ironic."

**Later **

Casey feels like the three and a half hour drive to DC took her a lot sooner than expected. Somehow, driving alone tends to make everything go by so much faster, but at the same time, it also left her a lot of time to think about practically everything that came to mind.

It's about eight by the time that she gets there and she finds herself still clutching her steering wheel so tight that her knuckles are turning deathly paper white. Sighing, she rests her head against the wheel, and stays like that for she doesn't know how long, until a tapping on her window causes her to jump from fright.

Glancing out of the window, Casey is met with a yet very colorful Garcia waving at her, an apologetic smile gracing her features.

"Ohh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Penelope says apologetically once Casey steps out of her car. "I just saw you sitting there like that and I was worried."

"Thank you, Penelope. I'm fine." The redhead responds before she finds herself enveloped in a bone crushing hug. Right, how could she forget, Garcia is a hugger. "Um, Penelope…I can't breathe…"

Garcia releases her tight squeeze on Casey and gives her a wide smile. "Sorry sweetie, I just feel like it's a while since I've seen you. C'mon, Jayje will be super excited that you're here." she says leading the way up the garden path to JJ's house. "That's all she's talked about for the past two weeks was you coming down here for Christmas. You should've seen her, she was so adorable."

Casey chuckles nervously as she follows Garcia into the house. She looks around and is thoroughly surprised how Christmas-y it looks on the inside. Truth be told, living in New York with her workaholic friends, she can't say that she's use to seeing so much decoration.

"You're gonna fall." JJ says in reference to the tall brunette on a step ladder trying to put the star on the top of the probably too tall Christmas tree. "You're gonna fall, break your neck, and I'm not paying for the medical bill."

"If I fall and break anything you better, because I'm in your house." Emily replies snidely, still trying to reach the top of the tree.

"No, because I told you not to get up there Prentiss. Don't think I won't laugh when you fall and bust your ass."

"That's just cruel Jareau…"

JJ opens her mouth to respond but only a small squeak comes out when she feels a pair of arms wrap around her waist. She smiles warmly when she feels a pair of lips press softly against her neck. "Hey you."

"Hey yourself." Casey replies as the blonde spins in her arms to give her a proper kiss. "I didn't know that you were so decorative."

"I'm just full of surprises then aren't I? Actually, truth be told, it's mostly Garcia. She makes me decorate." JJ admits playfully.

"Damn right I do." Garcia says entering the living room. "Awww you two are just so cute! I can't believe I forgot how cute you are."

Casey blushes while JJ simply rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Thank you Garcia…" she mutters sarcastically as she rests her head on Casey's shoulder.

"Anytime sugarplum!" the flamboyant blonde says before she disappears into the kitchen.

Casey laughs at the exchange between the two before she seriously looks into Jennifer's eyes. "Hey, um, can we talk about something later tonight? There's something I think I should tell you."

"Yeah, of course…are you alright?" JJ questions curiously, taking note of the look on her girlfriend's face.

"No, yeah, I'm fine. I just…need to tell you something. Look, my bag is in the car, I'll go get it, okay?"

JJ only nods in response and wraps her arms around herself as she mentally tries to figure out what it is Casey wants to tell her. Only then is she brought back to reality by the sharp pain in her side from where Emily gently pokes her. "Christ Emily! Not there!"

Emily winces and recoils in apology. "Geez, sorry Jayje, I forgot. So, are you gonna tell her?"

"Do I need to? I mean, I'm fine…"

"She's gonna notice…"

"She's also gonna worry…"

**That Night **

Casey hums as she reluctantly breaks their passionate kiss long enough for the both of them to breathe. "I love your friends to death, but in all honesty, I thought they'd never leave." She says, connecting her lips to the blonde's neck, leaving a trail of hot wet kisses.

A pleasurable moan escapes JJ's lips as she tangles her fingers into Casey's hair. "If you had said something, I would've kicked them out sooner. God knows that I was dying to."

Casey hums again and this time slips her hand under JJ's shirt aching to touch her soft skin. She pulls back however when JJ hisses and gently pushes her away. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing, I'm fine. Just…a work injury, that's all." Jennifer explains, trying to brush it off as nothing.

Casey however is having none of it, and she sits up with confusion and worry evident on her face. "What kind of work injury? What happened?"

"Case, it's not a big deal, c'mon…"

"What happened?" Casey pleads again.

JJ hesitates for a moment before she sighs and averts her eyes to somewhere else in her bedroom. She hands her head low drops her voice to a mumble, hoping Casey won't hear her. "…I fell off a building."

"Jay?!"

"It's not that big a deal, I'm fine!"

"You fell of a building Jennifer! How is that 'not that big a deal'!? Let me see."

The agent's eyes widen to about the size of saucers and she jerkily shakes her head. "No, Casey, come on. It's not a big deal."

"Let. Me. See." The attorney demands, her tone going into one that she reserves only for criminals she's interrogating.

With a heavy sigh, JJ pulls her shirt over her head, revealing a huge deep purple bruise that covers most of her left side. She softly takes her girlfriend's hand in her own upon seeing the expression on her face. "Case, really, I'm fine."

"Why didn't you want to tell me?" Casey asks, her eyes still locked on the nasty looking bruises.

"I didn't want you to worry, which is what you're doing…"

"YOU FELL OF A BUILDING. What else did you expect me to do?! You could have died!"

Wincing, JJ closes her eyes briefly and shakes her head. "It wasn't that far of a drop, and the top of a dumpster broke my fall when the unsub shoved me over the edge." She flinches when she realizes she's said way to much. Crap.

"YOU WERE PUSHED OFF A BUILDING?!" Casey screeches. She isn't sure if she's upset that JJ was pushed off a building, or the fact that she didn't want to tell her.

"Casey, please calm down. I'm fine, and it doesn't even hurt unless you touch it. But I am fine."

Sighing, Casey allows the blonde to softly kiss her hand as her nerves slowly return to normal. "...okay."

JJ scoots closer and places a soft kiss to Casey's cheek before gently stroking it with her finger. "See? I'm fine. Now, what was it that you wanted to talk about earlier."

Casey screws her eyes shut the longest of moments and she lets her hands fall limply into her lap. She takes several shuddering deep breaths before she opens her eyes again. "Alex told me that she was in love with me." she says quietly, wincing when she feels JJ go completely rigid, and her tone go completely cold.

"What."

**Ooo this chapter was a doozy wasn't it? Do you think Casey was right in telling JJ? How should JJ handle it? And what about Alex? Should she tell the truth about what she's done? And why hasn't she apologized to Abbie? The questions are endless! Leave a review?**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Why do these chapters turn out longer than expected?! Sheesh, anyway, as always, hope you guys enjoy!**

"What."

Casey winces and carefully intertwines her fingers with JJ's, not sure of what exactly the blonde is feeling at the moment. She mentally sighs in relief when she feels J's muscles relax upon the physical contact between the two of them.

"She-she got drunk this past weekend when a few of us went out for drinks and I ended up taking her home where she rattled on and on about how much her life sucks before she confessed to being in love with me. I-I thought she was just drunk, because believe me, she was super toasted, but when I mentioned it to her at work, she confirmed that what she said was true. I-I know it's the last thing that you want to here, but I wouldn't be comfortable with myself if I kept this from you."

A smile breaks out across JJ's lips, and she slowly leans in and places a soft kiss on the corner of Casey's mouth. "Hey, it's okay. I guess I just…wasn't expecting to hear that." she explains with a small sigh. Quite as kept, in a way, she sort of did expect to hear something like this. She had assumed that Alex had some sort of feelings for Casey, but flat out in love with her never crossed Jennifer's mind.

"Are you mad?" Casey asks quietly, hanging her head low as if to already apologize.

"Why would I be mad?" JJ responds, tilting her head in the slightest bit of confusion. She's not mad per say, but she sure as hell isn't happy either. She never really did trust Alex upon first meeting her, and now she has all the more reason not to. It isn't until then that she realizes she's thinking too hard, and Casey is staring her with an expression of disbelief. "What?"

"I don't believe you…"

"Casey, I'm not mad, I promise. I just-I don't know what I'm supposed to feel."

"You don't trust me…" Casey says sadly, casting her eyes down at her hands.

Alarm crosses JJ's face and she takes both of Casey's hands in her own once more. "No, no, that is not it, at all. Of course I trust you. It's…Alex, I don't trust. She gives off this vibe. This snake in the grass kinda vibe."

"I think she gets that from a lot of people. I'm actually thoroughly surprised that she bought me baseball tickets." As soon as the words leave her mouth, Casey regrets them completely. She knows that the very last thing she should've have done is to tell her girlfriend that Alex got her baseball tickets.

JJ's eyebrows shoot into her hair line, and she feels her anger starting to well up again. "She…got you baseball tickets…" she mumbles, more of a statement, rather than a question. "She fucking got you baseball tickets."

"Jay, please don't be mad, I-I didn't know she was…you're mad aren't you. Gosh Jay, I'm sorry." Casey begs, seeing the anger brewing in her lover's eyes.

Shaking her head, JJ sighs heavily and leans over to give Casey a long kiss on the lips. "I'm sorry, we should go to sleep. And I'm not mad." she concludes softly before settling into a position to wrap her good arm around Casey. _'I just have less than forty eight hours to start from scratch in finding another fucking Christmas present.' _

It's around two thirty in the morning when JJ finds herself still staring blankly at the darkened ceiling. Closing her eyes, she listens to Casey's even breathing, alerting her that the woman is definitely asleep, and probably has been for sometime. Opening her eyes again, JJ finds herself once again staring at the ceiling, completely unable to fall asleep.

Sighing, she makes her way out of bed and into the bathroom where she stares intently at her tired looking reflection. She winces when she once again becomes painfully aware of her injuries, and she quickly digs around in the medicine cabinet for her prescribed medication. Quickly downing the set amount of pills, JJ retreats from the bathroom and glances at Casey once more before she decides to head downstairs. She fumbles around in the darkness of her house for a while before she locates her cell phone. Glancing at the time once more, she realizes that it is far from an inconvenient hour, but damnit she needs someone to talk to.

The phone rings about seven times before it's picked up, followed by a muffled 'shit' from the phone falling. "Prentiss." Is the otherwise sleepy and aggravated reply.

"Emily, it's me…I'm sorry if I woke you." JJ apologizes, knowing for a fact that she did wake the brunette.

"JJ it's almost three in the morning. What do you want…" the older agent grumbles, hating being woken up in the wee hours of the morning, whether it be for work or personal situations.

"I know, it's early, and I'm sorry, I just…I can't sleep, and I really need to talk."

There is a small shuffling sound before a long drawn out sigh. "So…what do you want a bedtime story?"

JJ rolls her eyes and draws her knees up to her chest as she cradles her phone to her ear. "You're sarcasm is becoming an illness Prentiss. But seriously, I have a problem; I don't know what to get Casey for Christmas."

"I thought you got her tickets to that huge baseball game she really wanted to go to. What happened to that?"

A frown crosses JJ's features, and she involuntarily grips her phone tighter in her hand. "I did, and I thought it was a really good idea too. But, do you remember Alex Cabot?"

Emily yawns greatly and blinks several times as her sleep deprived mind tries to process JJ's words. "Mmmm, yeah. Would I like to, not really, but yeah I remember. What about her?"

"Well, she got Casey tickets to the exact same baseball game. Only, I'm more than a hundred percent sure the quality of hers is so much better than mine, simply because she has money…and a lot of it. God, even when she's over two hundred miles away, this woman still manages to get the hell on my nerves."

"Oh wow Jayje; what sucks. So…what're you gonna do? Christmas is the day after tomorrow. Well…technically tomorrow seeing as you're calling me at the dark thirty in the morning…"

JJ groans in irritation and sinks further down into the cushions of her couch. "I don't know Emily, that's why I called you. I got her those tickets because I knew that she really wanted to go, and I did everything I could to get them, but now…fuck Em, I don't know what to do."

There is silence on the other end of the line, and for the longest of times JJ actually thinks that Emily has fallen asleep on the phone, but it isn't until the brunette speaks again is she alerted that she's still awake. "Hm…I really don't know. I mean, those tickets really were a good idea since she loves baseball, but since that's how…hm…super awesome Christmas sex?"

"Em, you're being no help right now…and I was going to give her that anyway. Ugh, I'm a horrible girlfriend."

"Hey, you're not horrible. You got her something that she would really like. Someone else just got her the same thing and gave it to her first…" Emily says blandly, pausing when she receives no response. "Right, not helping. Which reminds me, why did Alex get her those tickets anyway? I heard they were literally damn near impossible to get."

JJ sighs again and her voice drops to a dark and irritated growl. "Oh they were, trust me, I know." she grumbles, mentally deciding that Emily doesn't quite need to know about Casey's revelation on her boss earlier. "And I don't know why she felt the need to buy Casey those tickets. All I do know is that she did, and I'm here with out a Christmas present for my girlfriend on Christmas Eve."

**Christmas Eve; Serena Southerlyn's Apartment **

"Whoa, you look…interesting." Alex says from the couch of her best friend's apartment. She looks up at Serena who is continuing to putter around her apartment finishing up last minute details.

"Interesting in a bad way?" Serena questions as she gazes into a mirror and proceeds to put on her lipstick.

Alex shakes her head quickly and tilts her head to the side. "No, no. You look amazing actually, I was just…wondering where you're going, since you're all dressed up."

Serena hums as she examines her make up one last time. "Oh, I have a date."

Alex's eyes widen and she feels like her throat has gone completely dry. If there were ever a time that she's fucked up royally, this was it. "Oh…you have a date. I see. But…what about Abbie?"

"What about Abbie?" Serena replies in question, though her question and Alex's question totally differ in meaning. "You know we aren't together anymore."

"Y-yeah, I know, but…don't you think it'd be good if you talked to her? You know, maybe try and fix things?" Alex suggests, slightly for her sake_. 'Fix things so I won't have to…?' _

Shaking her head, Serena drops her lipstick in her person and turns to Alex with a slightly indignant expression. "I don't have anything to say to her that hasn't already been said. If she wants to talk, then she can be a big girl and come to talk to me. Though, I doubt that I would listen. I don't have time for her whining anymore. You know, not being with her, makes me realize a lot of things that I didn't while I was with her. Like how much she whines, and how childish she tends to be almost all the time."

"But, you loved her though, right?"

"Yeah, I did, but the feeling obviously wasn't requited." Serena responds shrugging. "I don't want to talk about her anymore, you're like the millionth person that's brought up my so called relationship with her."

"Because the two of you were-are an amazing couple!" Alex exclaims, drastically throwing her hands in the air.

A cold hard gaze crosses over Serena's facial features, a trait that she's actually picked up from Alex herself. "That was before she decided to have some random fling with a stripper behind my back."

Alex snaps her mouth shut and averts her eyes to something else in the room. Her lips purse into a thin line before she slowly shakes her head. "I shouldn't have told you…" she murmurs quietly, fully realizing the extent of her damage.

"Ali, you were only being my best friend." Serena says finally, her voice softening. "But I don't want to talk about this anymore. Anyway, did you give Casey her present?"

A bashful smile crosses Alex's lips and she nods her head. "Yeah, I did. I think she really liked it, even though she was doing everything she could to avoid me. I don't think she's taking my feelings for her very well right now."

"She's probably confused right now. I mean, she has a girlfriend now, and then you just come out and drunkenly tell her you're in love with her. I'd be confused to. Speaking of girlfriend-"

"Yes, I still see her as the biggest pain in my ass, and I hope she stays down there in DC so I will never have to see her again."

Serena's mouth snaps shut upon hearing Alex answer so quickly. She sighs heavily and continues to move around her apartment. "You know, I still don't think she's so bad. I mean, yeah I could see how you would because she's dating Casey, but she's really a nice person. Contrary to what you're saying, she really didn't come off as arrogant with me. In fact, I think she's kinda…quiet."

Alex raises her eyebrows and her mouth opens and closes several times as she tries to form a coherent sentence. "QUIET?! What do you mean she's 'quiet'?!"

"Well, I mean, as compared to you. I'm not saying she doesn't speak at all, I'm just saying the way she speaks…she's quiet. You're not quiet Alex."

"I CAN BE-" Alex pauses as she sees Serena's facial expression and she's yelling. "I can be quiet…"

Serena snorts humorously and shakes her head. "Not Jennifer quiet. Her quiet is a natural quiet. You're only quiet when you're mad at somebody...and that's only BEFORE you get loud. Maybe Casey likes quiet."

Alex folds her arms and sits back against the cushions of Serena's couch. Okay, so maybe she isn't exactly the quietest person in the word, but can anyone blame her? She likes to talk, hell, it's what she does for a living; talk. "So are you suggesting that I change who I am, for Casey?"

"It's a start." Serena says shrugging before she walks into kitchen leaving Alex to ponder in her own thoughts.

Those thoughts, however, are interrupted by a sudden knocking at the front door. "Alex can you get that? I'll be just a second." Serena calls out from the kitchen.

Alex rolls her eyes as she forces her self off of her comfort spot on the sofa. She makes her way over to the door and opens it, only to be met with a woman she's never seen before. The woman is thin, around Alex's height, with piercing bright green eyes, and lightly blonde hair that's pulled into a tight ponytail. She's dressed in a form fitting black dress and matching heels, all under a fashionable winter coat. Truth be told, it takes everything within Alex not to go, "oh my god I love your earrings".

"Um, hello. Is Serena here?" the woman asks, curiously eyeing the strange woman that answered the door.

Alex puts on her polite smile that she reserves for strangers and steps to the side to allow the woman in. "Yeah, she'll be right out." she says politely. As if on cue, Serena steps out of the kitchen, and a wide smile comes across the woman's lips, showing off her perfectly white teeth.

"You look gorgeous." The woman purrs, leaning in to give Serena a peck on the cheek which causes her to giggle.

"Oh stop it you." Serena gushes, playfully swatting the woman on the shoulder, flinching when Alex not-so-discretely clears her throat. "Oh right, um, this is my best friend, Alexandra Cabot. Alex, this is Doctor Lindsey Hale."

Alex extends her hand and shakes hands with the woman, wondering how the hell, or better yet, why the hell Serena is going on a date with a doctor. "Oh, so you're a doctor?" she says, feigning interest.

Lindsey flashes a smile at Serena before she looks back to Alex and nods her head. "Yes, I'm a cardiologist. I'm assuming that you work for the district attorney as well?"

"Oh, yeah. I work for the special victims unit." Alex replies, and chuckles nervously when she sees the look on the doctor's face. "Yeah, that's usually the face people make when I tell them that."

"Anyway, Lindsey and I really should be going." Serena speaks up, wanting to put an end to the stalling.

Lindsey smiles and places her hand on the small of Serena's back. "Yes, we should actually. I made reservations."

"Mmmm, I bet you did. Alex, you have a key, lock up will you?"

Alex hesitates for a moment and nods her head. "Y-yeah, I will. It was nice meeting you Doctor Hale." She calls out as the couple leaves. She swallows the thick lump of whatever in her throat and runs a shaky hand through her hair. She knows that she has a lot of damage control to do, but she isn't sure if she can control _this _damage.

**As I was sitting here, alternating between SVU and Criminal Minds just to get a better feel of the characters as I'm writing, my sister came to her own conclusion that JJ is quieter than Alex. **

'**When JJ talks, I feel like she's bored sometimes, verses when Alex talks, well…I feel like I'm being scolded for sticking my hand in the cookie jar before dinner' quote, my sister. **

**So, her little impromptu character analysis prompted a conversation between Alex and Serena. Just thought I'd add that little side note, she'd kill me if I didn't give her credit. Anyway, leave a review? **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I personally hate this chapter…I don't know why I just, do. Ugh, it pisses me off how I wrote it. Grrr, what ever, I hope you guys like it. **

Alex shifts from one leg to the other impatiently as she continues to knock on the door for what feels like over an hour now. She's never really been a patient person, and she sighs heavily as it begins to shine through. "Abbie, open the door, I know you're in there!" she calls out, knowing for a fact that the brunette is home because she heard shuffling around in the tenth minute of her knocking. "Please? I just want to talk to you."

Once again there is no response, and Alex is becoming even more impatient than she was when she first got there. After seeing Serena go on a date with that doctor, she decided that it was best that she at least try to fix things, and seeing as she couldn't get anywhere on Serena's end of the deal, she's decided to go elsewhere.

"Abbie, please. I know you're upset with me, and you have ever right to be, but I just want to talk, and I'm not leaving until you let me in." Alex demands crossing her arms tightly. It most definitely is not an empty threat, and if she has to sit outside the door all night and wait, she will.

She is about to start pounding on the door again when she hears the locks being quickly turned. Seconds later, the door opens and Alex visibly flinches at the cold hard glare that Abbie is giving her. If looks could kill, she's surprised that she hasn't dropped dead right there.

"Um, can I come in?" Alex asks putting on her best smile, despite the look she's receiving. Abbie stares at her for a moment longer before she sharply turns around without another word, leaving the door open to silently give the blonde the incentive that she can enter.

Swallowing thickly, Alex follows Abbie into the apartment, and freezes when she once again realizes she's being glared at. She's seen Abbie mad several times before on several occasions, but all of those are nothing compared to this moment right now. "Okay, um…so I guess I should start with, I'm sorry. I know you're mad at me, and you should have every right to be. What I did was wrong, and selfish, and I shouldn't have used you the way I did. I really am sorry."

For the longest of times the two sit in a heavily tense silence. A silence that feels like hours to Alex until Abbie finally says something. "Your sneaky underhanded tricks have cost me my best friend, my girlfriend, and now my job. Give me at least one good reason why I should listen to anything you say, and even think about accepting your apology." She states firmly, her tone cold, and laced with anger.

"I-I honestly, don't expect you to accept my apology, and it wouldn't surprise me if you never forgive me. I just want you to know that I'm really, really sorry for what I did."

Abbie stays silent for another moment as she draws her knees up to her chest and averts her gaze to something else in the room, anything else other than the woman that has practically ruined her life for the time being. "You were supposed to be my friend Alex. Friends don't blackmail each other into doing each other's dirty work for them. Casey hasn't spoken to me, at all, and Serena won't even look at me. I hope you got what you wanted, because in turn you've completely screwed me over. Not to mention the fact that I'm suspended from work until Liz decides that I can go back, and even more so, that doesn't mean she's going to allow me to prosecute."

Alex winces as she hears the full extent of her damage. She hadn't realize before how bad things would turn out, and right now she absolutely has no idea how she can fix it, if she can that is. "I'm sorry…" she whispers, wringing her hands together out of nervous habit. "I-I tried talking to Serena...I told her that she should talk to you."

"I doubt she listened." Abbie mutters with a humorless laugh. "I've tried to get her to talk to me. I don't know what else I can do. I feel like I've lost her Alex, and I love her so much I just-when's the last time you talked to her?"

"Um…I was over at her place earlier, but that really doesn't matter."

"Did she say anything about me?"

"Abbie, I really don't think that I should…"

"What'd she say? I want to know what happened."

Alex sighs heavily as she nervously chews her lower lip. "To be honest, she wasn't exactly focusing on anything I was saying, because she was going out…"

Hurt slowly damns on Abbie's face, and she casts her pain filled eyes to the floor. "She had a date…that's what you're saying. She's found someone."

"Uh, don't think of it like that. I highly doubt that it's a serious something. You know, maybe you should go over there and talk to her."

"She demanded that I give her my key back. Who was it she went out with?"

Alex's face screws up in concentration before she nonchalantly shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. It was some doctor that she met somewhere. I didn't really have time to ask."

"A doctor…" Abbie states sadly as she nods her head and sighs once again. "Of course she's seeing a doctor, what would she want with me anyway? I'm stupid, and jobless, and she deserves so much better. I think you actually did her a favor Alex."

"Hey, no, no, no. Do not talk like that Abbie. She had everything that she needed when she was with you. This is my fault, not yours."

"Alex, you just told her the truth. I'm the one who fooled around, and didn't have the guts to tell her. She deserves better." Abbie repeats as she leans forward and places her head in her hands.

It takes Alex a minute to realize that Abbie is crying, and for a moment she really doesn't know what to do. She cautiously moves over to the couch and wraps her arms around the sobbing brunette, thoroughly surprised when she doesn't pull away.

"This doesn't mean that I'm still not angry with you." Abbie says through her sobs, though she does need the comfort.

"That's understandable. You just cry all you want." Alex reassures with as much confidence as she can muster. "It'll be alright." _'I hope.'_

**Meanwhile…**

"You seem tense…" Casey mumbles as she massages the knots out of her girlfriend's shoulders. "Why are you so tense?"

"Work stress." JJ mumbles in reply. Truth be told, her shoulders are where she stores most of her tension, but that isn't the only thing that's been bothering her. Ever since Casey told her about Alex, she just keeps finding more and more reasons to dread Casey returning back to New York.

Casey moves one of her hands and places a kiss to the blonde's shoulder before resting her chin there. "You should learn to relax more. Are you sure that it's just work that's bothering you?"

JJ's only response is to remain completely silent as she tries to come up with a reasonable answer. She hates lying, but at the same time, it's the holidays, and the last thing she wants to do is spark some sort of argument. "Yeah, I'm sure. I just- being pushed off a building takes a lot out of you, ya know?" she jokes, trying to brush off the subject with some light humor.

Casey however, doesn't crack a smile at the joke and she moves around to where she is facing JJ. "You're lying."

A frown crosses Jennifer's face, and she shakes her head before settling on tilting it to the side in question. "I'm not lying Casey, what makes you think I am?"

"When you lie, you follow your lie with a joke to try and lighten the moment, or draw attention away from the lie." Casey explains simply, softly placing a hand on the agent's cheek.

JJ raises her eyebrows before she turns to the sight and places a soft kiss on the inside of her lover's palm. "You would make an excellent profiler. Can we not talk about it? I just want to enjoy Christmas with my beautiful girlfriend, and not have to worry about work, or people I don't trust."

"Are you referring to Alex?"

"In a sense…" JJ mumbles in reply, an angered expression flitting across her face, but as soon as it's there, it's gone.

Casey stays silent for a moment before she turns away to look at the wall, something that JJ has learned is a defensive mechanism when she can't understand something. "I don't understand why you don't trust her. She's in love with me, I'm not in love with her, plus, she knows that I'm with you. I don't think even Alex would stoup low enough to disrespect our relationship."

"Then why would she buy you those tickets." JJ asks, a question that she has wanted to ask since the night before. "Why would she buy you those baseball tickets if she understands…"

"Maybe she's just being nice? People are aloud to get me things Jennifer."

"I'm not saying that they aren't, I just don't like it that she is. I mean come on, don't tell me that you haven't noticed the way that she looks at me whenever I'm around you, or how when we went to dinner she just spontaneously showed up as if it was just a coincidence. I don't believe in coincidences Casey, my jobs forbids me to do so. Or what about all of those times that she's told me that I needed to stay away from you, that I should just 'crawl back to the fed hole' that I came from? I realize that a lot of assistant district attorneys don't particularly favor federal agents; I get that, I'm used to it. But the way that Alex acted was far different from just a professional issue. She wants you Casey, not just wants to have you around, but she wants to have you as hers. I see it, and I'm positive all of your friends see it too."

"Jennifer she-"

"Let me finish Casey. She wants you as hers and I would not put it past her to use every sneaky underhanded trick in the book to try and get you to be hers. She hates me, and I don't trust her. It might just me being jealous and possessive, fine, but I'm possessive about the things that I care most about. You are one of those things. So this isn't about her just buying you something just to do so, it's about her ulterior motives that I know are there. I refuse to let her take you from me, I just-I just can't."

Casey opens her mouth to respond, but finds that no sound is able to escape her lips. She closes her mouth again, and angles her head down to where she is staring intently at her hands. "I didn't mean to make you angry. I guess, I just didn't see it as that. The way she treats me, the way that she acts around just people in general, I never would have thought that she was seriously in love with me."

JJ huffs and rakes both of her hands through her hair as she calls down from her high of frustration. "I'm not angry, and I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I'm just, scared okay? But I don't want to talk about Alex anymore."

Casey nods her head and buries her face into her favorite spot when Jennifer's neck connects with her shoulders. She mentally curses a few minutes later when she feels one of her tears fall and she knows JJ felt it too.

"Baby, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" JJ asks curiously, her voice laced with utter concern. "Was it something I said?"

Pulling away, Casey shakes her head and shamefully wipes at her eyes. "No, no, it's not something that you said. It's just, I was thinking about how back when we decided to be together, how my best friend tried to turn me against the idea."

JJ thinks for a minute before her frown turns to that of a concerned confusion. "Abbie right?"

"Yeah. She said that you weren't good for me and that if we started a relationship that it would never work out." Casey recalls, wincing at the words as she repeats them herself. "She's my best friend, or she was my best friend…I just don't understand why she would say those things…"

"I just don't understand why people don't think that I'm good for you." JJ grumbles darkly in response, her anger becoming evident in her posture, and Casey can tell just by how she felt the blonde's arms tense around her, that she is a lot less than happy. "Have the two of you spoken since then?"

"No…we haven't. I haven't felt the need to say anything to her, and that's that I guess. But I'm starting to think that I was overreacting. What do you think?"

JJ's face has contorted into concentration as her mind starts thinking of several possible answers to the question. "When Abbie told you that I wasn't good for you, how did she say it? Was she firm about it, or…"

Casey frowns for a moment as she tries to recall exactly how the dreadful conversation went that day. "She was flustered. She kept stumbling over her words, and doing things that she would only do when she was nervous. She wasn't demanding really, but I think I was just so upset at the time, I thought nothing of it. Why, what are you thinking?"

Jennifer smiles and shakes her head before she leans down to give the redhead a loving kiss on the lips, all the while starting to piece together things in her head. _'I'm thinking that Alex is a bigger snake than I thought.' _

**Hmm JJ is a smart cookie isn't she? Wonder what she ended up getting Casey for Christmas. Questions, questions. **

**Oh! Actually, I do have a question; would it be weird if I put Abbie Carmichael and Jane Rizzoli in the same story? I have an idea for a chapter in 'A Day in the Life' but I was wondering if that'd be weird. I mean…technically speaking, they are sorta kinda different people…I don't know…that's why I asked. Leave a review? **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Ugh, I hate this chapter too, I'm a little off my game lately, sorry in advance. Hope ya like it anyway. **

**Christmas Day **

Christmas morning Casey awakens earlier than intended. She thinks about moving but then she remembers that there are arms wrapped securely around her waist, preventing her from doing so. Well, preventing her from doing so with out waking up the owner of said arms. So she settles on relaxing her head back onto the pillow and doing something that can be seen as rather dangerous to her when she has time to do so; she starts thinking.

She closes her eyes and sighs, but she isn't sure if the sigh is content, or if it is an exasperated sigh. After a moment, she deduces that it's probably a mixture between the two. Ever since that night that she had to take a wasted Alex home, she's been thinking about what the blonde said. _'How in the hell is it possible that Alex is in love with me. And why do I feel this strange feeling whenever I tell JJ that Alex's feelings aren't returned? I mean, as far as I know, I don't feel anything for Alex…I think. Even if I did, it wouldn't matter, because I have a girlfriend now, and I'm happy. Maybe I'll talk to Alex about this when I get back, if I don't it'll bother me forever. I sure hope that Jennifer isn't upset. She says that she isn't but I can tell that she's more than upset. Why can't my love life ever be simple?' _

"You've been sighing probably for the past ten minutes." JJ murmurs softly, her voice tired, but not laced with sleep like that of a person just waking up.

"I've just been thinking that's all, and I thought you were asleep, I didn't want to wake you." Casey responds before turning over to give the blonde a kiss. "Merry Christmas. C'mon, I want you to open your present."

JJ groans and buries her face into the soft fabric of the pillow. "Can't we just lay here? I think that's a good enough present for me…"

Casey rolls her eyes and gives the agent a small shove before she climbs out of bed. "Come on JJ, don't be lazy on Christmas."

JJ snorts and turns over, placing one of the pillows over her head. "You must not know me then, I'm a lazy person."

"Jennifer…"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming."

"Not yet." Casey quips with a smirk before exiting the bedroom, leaving a gaping JJ in her wake. She makes her way down the stairs and plops down in front of the tree, grinning when she sees her sleepy girlfriend appear at the top of the landing. "Will you hurry up?"

Sighing dramatically, JJ slumps her way down the stairs and takes a seat next to Casey who has made herself comfortable on the floor. "I still think that we would've had a very good Christmas in bed, but obviously some people have other ideas." She mutters jokingly.

Casey rolls her eyes and slides a small box with holes poked into it over towards JJ. "Open it." she demands smiling at the blonde's curious expression.

Jennifer eyes the box curiously, and wonders what the hell it could be that requires for it to have holes poked in the sides. She reaches down towards the wrapping paper but pulls her hand back when she hears a scratching against the box. "Casey, what the hell is in that box…"

Casey snickers and waves her hand towards the present. "Just open it."

Giving Casey yet another look of concern, JJ turns her attention back to the box and carefully begins to peel away the wrapping paper. Tossing the paper to the side, she peers down into the box, before she gasps and places her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god Casey!"

Casey chuckles as she watches JJ reach down into the box and pull out a small orange stripped kitten. "Do you like him?"

"Oh my god, I've wanted a cat for I don't know how long. How did you know, and how did you get him here?" JJ questions as she sits the little kitten on the floor and watches as he gazes up at his new surroundings.

"I remember I heard you telling Garcia that you really liked cats and really wanted one, so yesterday when you were out with Emily, I called Penelope and she helped me pick out this little guy. He stayed with her over night and dropped him off not too long ago, so he hasn't been out here too long. So, I hope you like him, he's super cute."

Instead of a response, Casey feels herself nearly being knocked over from an attack hug that leaves arms tightly wrapped around her neck. "I take it you like him then."

"I love it, thank you so much." JJ murmurs into Casey's shoulder. She could stay like that all day until she remembers that she has a present of her own to give. Sitting back on her heels, she picks up a slender box wrapped in colorful paper and hands it to Casey. "Merry Christmas."

Casey glances at JJ before she turns her attention to the box in her hands and she eloquently begins to tear away the paper. Ever since she was a child, she's had a thing about not just ripping open Christmas presents, and each time she opens one, she makes sure not to tear the paper.

After carefully peeling away the paper, she finds herself holding a velvet black box, one that she recognizes that jewelry always comes in. She hesitates for a moment before she opens the box and gasps silently at its contents. "Oh my god Jennifer…"

"I-I know it might be a bit much, but I saw it, and I thought of you, and I thought it'd look really great on you so…I bought it." JJ explains nervously. Despite being a profiler and studying human behavior for a living, she has absolutely no idea what her girlfriend's expressions mean. Granted, she had chosen the gift in place of her original one, and she thought it had more sentimental value than the other, but right now, she can't tell if this is a good 'oh my god Jennifer' or a bad one.

"These…these are real diamonds." Casey gasps, studying the diamond encrusted circular pendant on a white gold chain. No one has ever really bought her jewelry before let alone bought her diamonds.

JJ nods her head and reaches out, lightly tracing the pendant. "Yeah, um, it's an infinity circle pendant." She explains, smiling when Casey gasps again. "I would explain, but judging by the look on your face I think you kind of understand. I hope you like it."

"I love it." Casey whispers before leaning forwards to give her girlfriend a loving kiss. A kiss that deepens instantly but is cut short by a small 'meow' followed by a low growl. Both women pull apart and chuckle at the sight of the kitten having an all out war with their disposed wrapping paper.

"He's going to be a hand full." Casey states, laughing when the kitten yelps before tearing into the colorful paper. "Hey, you don't mind if I go make a phone call do you?"

"No, not at all." JJ shakes her head as she moves across the floor to scoop up her new pet.

Casey makes her way into the kitchen and pulls out herself phone, before she reluctantly makes the call that she's been thinking about all morning. She leans against the counter, and patiently waits while the phone rings…

**Meanwhile…**

Abbie groans irritably as she is awoken by the dreaded sound of her phone ringing. 'Who the hell is calling her on Christmas morning, and what the hell do that want' is the only question that's running through her head as she reaches over to snatch her phone off the nightstand. Forgoing glancing at the caller ID, she hits the answer button and places the phone to her ear. "Hello…"

"Hey Abbie, um, Merry Christmas." Casey says awkwardly after hearing that brunette has obviously just woken up.

Abbie frowns into the phone before she squeezes her eyes shut and sinks back under the covers. "So now you feel like I'm worth the phone call." she grumbles angrily. She knows that she shouldn't be upset that Casey has finally decided to speak to her, but she can't help it. She's been hurting too.

"I guess I deserved that." Casey mumbles from her end of the line. "Listen, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"What's the point Casey, the damage has already been done. I've had to go weeks with you ignoring me, and now everyone else has left me alone. I don't need your pity phone calls."

"I'm not calling you out of pity Abbie; I really am trying to say that I'm sorry. I was the one that was overreacting, and I shouldn't have just flat out cut you off like that. It was wrong."

"Yeah, well there are a lot of things that are wrong right now." Abbie mutters before she sighs heavily. "A lot of good your 'sorry' is going to do."

This time it's Casey who sighs heavily and she closes her eyes at her (friend's?) impossibility. "Abbie please, just listen to me. I know that me just saying that I'm sorry isn't going to fix it, but it's a start. I want us to be best friends again, I miss you."

"You ignore me for weeks on end, and now you come out and say that you miss me. Yeah, a lot of sense that makes Casey."

"Am I the only thing that's bothering you? You can't be that upset with me for not speaking to you."

Abbie sits straight up in bed and fights the urge to throw the phone across the room; simply because it definitely wouldn't get her point across. "You want to know what's bothering me Casey? The fact that I don't have a girlfriend anymore, that's what's bothering me. The woman that I love is out frolicking around with some doctor, because I'm an idiot, and she doesn't need me anymore."

"Wait, you and Serena really are over?" Casey questions curiously, thoroughly surprised that what ever the problem is, hasn't blown over yet.

"Yes Casey, we really are over, because I'm an idiot and she doesn't want to be with me anymore. I fucked up, and she left me because of it. That's what's bothering me. I love her, she left me, and now I'm expected to go to work and sit there with her like everything is fine. Well, if I'm ever allowed to go back to work…" Abbie concludes with an irritated mumble. "God, I hate everything."

Casey bites the inside of her cheek before she sighs, not really knowing what it is she can say to make Abbie feel better; well, if there even is anything that can be said. "I'm really sorry Abbs…I know how much she means to you. Have you tried talking to her?"

"That stopped working a long time ago, and I doubt it'll work now, especially since she's out playing with Doctor Whoever. Everything just really sucks right now."

"Well, if you'll let me, when I get back I can come over and we can have one of our 'fuck everything else' movie nights…"

There is a long silence before Abbie sighs and nods her head. "I think I'd like that. When are you coming back from DC?"

"Probably sometime tomorrow." Casey responds, shrugging. "I've got a lot of things that I need to sort out in my head."

"Uh oh, sounds like this is going to be an interesting talk. Then, I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, I'll see you…bye Abbs."

"Bye Case, and Merry Christmas."

Casey ends the phone call and places her phone on the counter. She sighs before she exits the kitchen and plops down on the floor where JJ is playing with the kitten.

"I really love him Casey, thank you." Jennifer says before she leans over and gives her girlfriend a kiss, only to pull away when the kiss isn't responded to. "Is everything all right?"

Casey snaps out of her daze and shakily nods her head as she plasters a fake smile on her face. "Yeah…yeah, everything's fine…"

**-Gaaaaah they are so friggin cute! I think I'm gonna die a little inside when I have them break up :'( sadness. **

**-You know what I JUST realized?! I did not put Rollins in this story! Gasp, I'm such an awful person…oh well. Maybe I'll squeeze her in later…or not...i dunno. **

**-I know, I know, I'm talking a lot, sorry. But, I think I'm gonna start doing a little thing called chapter questions, where I'll just ask a random question at the end of the chapter, just to get a response from you guys. I like talking to you guys, and I hope you like talking to me, so I just wanna keep you guys engaged even more, if that makes sense. SO, here goes, **

**-Chapter Question: Between our six favorite ladies (Alex, Casey, Liv, Abbie, Serena, and Amanda) what would be the most odd and awkward pairing but at the same time it would be incredibly sexy and awesome to you guys. Leave your feedback! **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I think that this is a bittersweet chapter here folks. At least, I felt so when I was writing it. Here it is. **

The day that she has to go back to New York, Casey can't help but feel a little sad that she has to leave her girlfriend behind yet again. She can only assume that JJ feels the exact say way. Why else would they have been standing on the blonde's porch for probably ten minutes clinging to each other like their lives depend on it?

"Do you really have to go?" JJ mumbles, resting her head contently on Casey's shoulder all the while running her fingers through her favorite red hair.

Casey places a soft kiss to Jennifer's head and returns the hug once more. "We both know that I have to. But it's not like I'm saying goodbye Jen, we'll still see each other."

There is a small meow and they both glance down at the kitten that they have both affectionately dubbed 'Tiger' simply because he looks like a mini tiger. Casey chuckles and scoops the kitten into both hands, smiling when he begins to affectionately lick her cheek.

"You've grown on him." JJ states amusedly watching the exchange between the two. "I think he'll miss you too, but not as much as I will."

Casey places Tiger back onto the ground before she wraps her arms around her girlfriend once more. "I'll call, I promise. Unless you're working a case, then you'll have to call me."

JJ sighs and nods her head sadly before leaning in for a soft kiss. She reluctantly pulls away from the kiss and gently tucks a strand of Casey's hair behind her ear. "Drive safe." She instructs quietly.

Casey smiles warmly and gives the blonde one last peck on the lips before adjusting her bag on her shoulder. "I will, I'll text you when I make it home. Please don't fall off anymore buildings while I'm away…" she responds before turning her attention to the little kitten meowing at a grasshopper. "Bye little guy, I'll miss you too. Try not to give your mama too much trouble."

The two maintain eye contact as Casey makes her way to her car, and they share one last wave as she drives off back to the city that never sleeps. Distance yet again becoming a factor in their relationship for only god knows how long.

* * *

The three and a half hour drive this time lasts far too long for Casey as she had time to sit in her car and think about pretty much anything and everything. Everything from her relationship with Jennifer to whatever it is that Alex wants to her friendship with Abbie to why the hell Kim Greyleck only cracks a smile once in a blue moon at a joke that's not even that funny.

By the time that she steps into her apartment, Casey dumps her bag in her bedroom and proceeds to plop down on the couch to continue on with her thinking. She knows that she has several things that she needs to take care of but she doesn't know which she needs to first.

Shooting a quick text to JJ, Casey stands up from the sofa and shrugs on her jacket before she grabs her car keys to head out the door. Glancing at the time and realizing that it's only one thirty, she prays and hopes that Abbie is home so this trip won't be completely wasted.

Now the drive to Abbie's apartment is a lot quicker than expecting, and the redhead soon finds herself outside of Abbie's front door, contemplating on whether or not she should knock, or just go home. Finally, after a few longs minutes of trying to decide, she knocks on the door, and patiently waits to see if she's going to get any kind of response.

Minutes after her first knock, Casey hears shuffling on the other side of the door, and her heart rate slightly speeds up at hearing the locks turn. Soon, the door swings open to reveal Abbie clad in red plaid pajama pants and a grey hoodie with her hair tied into a messy ponytail. Despite her depressed looking expression, a small smile spreads across her features upon seeing her best friend. "Hey."

"Hey." Casey responds softly, stepping inside when Abbie steps to the side beckoning for her to enter. "How are you doing?"

"I've been better." Abbie sighs heavily as she plops down at her usual spot on the sofa. "How was DC?"

A small smile ghost across Casey's features and she dips her head where she begins ringing her hands. "It was amazing. I gave JJ a kitten for Christmas, she seems instantly attached."

"That's a beautiful necklace." Abbie states noticing the shining jewelry around her friend's neck. "Are those diamonds?"

"Yeah…yeah they are." Casey responds, her hand automatically traveling to the pendant handing around her neck.

Abbie nods her head, an impressed look making itself known on her face. "JJ really went all out then didn't she?"

Casey nods and a small frown crosses her features replacing the earlier smile. "Yeah, yeah she really did. I was amazed, no one's ever bought me jewelry before let alone diamonds. Granted, no one's ever bought me thousand dollar baseball tickets either."

Abbie tilts her head to the side, and her face contorts into a confused scowl. "Whoa, who dropped that much on sports tickets?!"

"Alexandra Cabot; that's who. Speaking of which, you wanna go to a Yankees game?"

"Casey, I'm from Texas; you know fairly well that we hate the Yankees…"

"It's also a Rangers game…" Casey offers, raising her eyebrows in tempting offer.

Abbie pauses for a long moment before nodding. "I'm in, but don't think for a second that I'm putting on any Yankees paraphernalia. But all that is beside the point, why would Alex spend that much on baseball tickets? She HATES sports."

"I know, that's what made absolutely no sense to me, until the night that she drunkenly told me that she was in love with me." the redhead murmurs, sinking down onto the sofa.

Abbie's eyes widen and her jaw drops at Casey's revelation. "Oh my god, she told you? What'd you do? What'd you say? Oh my god, what about JJ?"

"I didn't really say anything. I just…I haven't said anything, and what about JJ she's my girlfriend? She's my girlfriend, but at the same time, I really don't know what to do. I'm just so confused right now. I mean, while I was in DC with Jennifer, I was happy and everything, then she'd kiss me or we'd make love and everything just felt…strange."

"Strange how? Like, you didn't want it strange? Or strange that you were picturing someone else? Or strange that it was just bad sex?"

Casey makes a face and quickly shakes her head in the negative. "No, no. I told you, the sex is so good that we named it, I of course wasn't picturing anyone else, and I did want it, it just…something about it was just strange. I'm just so confused you know?"

Abbie sighs heavily and shakes her head before she draws her knees up to her chest. "No, I can't say that I do." she mumbles, casting her gaze down to the floor.

Casey narrows her eyes and shifts to where she is fully facing her best friend. "Abbie, what happened? And I want the full story."

"The full story?" Abbie questions, sighing when she sees Casey firmly nod her head. "Alright, full story. Serena and I had this huge fight a while ago, where she refused to speak to me. I was so messed up that I went to a club, got more than drunk, and blew too much money on one girl. It was just a little fun ya know? Trying to take my mind off my fight with Serena. I hadn't intended to take the girl back to my place one night, and I didn't intend to sleep with her, but it happened. After my fight we Serena blew over, I-I didn't want to stop seeing the girl from the club. There was just a thrill whenever I was with her, a thrill that wasn't there when I was with Serena." Abbie pauses and bites her lip as she realizes she doesn't want to tell Casey this part of the story. "So, I didn't tell Serena about it, but she found out recently, so…that explains why I'm here, pinning like an idiot over something that is completely my fault. I'll understand if you lose every ounce of respect for me after hearing that."

Casey stares upon her best friend with sad eyes before she shakes her head. "What you just told me doesn't make me lose my respect for you Abbie. I'm not saying that what you did wasn't wrong, but I'm not going to lecture you about how you messed up, it really isn't my place, and I'm sure you already know that. You have to understand though, Serena is really hurting right now, just give her a little bit of time to sort things out in her head."

"And if she never does?" Abbie asks sadly looking up with tears glistening in her eyes.

"Then, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Casey says giving her best friend's shoulder a light squeeze. "Now c'mon, let's watch Bridesmaids so we can make fun of their outfits every five minutes."

**Later That Evening **

Alex is sitting on her couch enjoying her glass of wine in silence when she hears a hesitant knock on her front door. Frowning, she takes one more sip of the red liquid before she makes her way to the door to see who is intruding on her quiet evening unannounced. Opening the door, a very shocked expression appears on her face at seeing her guest. "Casey? What're you doing here?"

Casey shrugs her shoulders and awkwardly shifts from one leg to the other, feeling slightly uncomfortable under the blonde's steely gaze. "U-um, I was just…in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd…stop by…"

"Casey, you live probably twenty five minutes away…"

"Right…can I come in?"

Alex steps so the side and extends her hand, motioning for Casey to enter her apartment. She closes the door and follows the nervous looking redhead into her living room, wondering what this spontaneous visit is about. "Please, have a seat."

"No thanks, I'd rather stand." Casey says shaking her head. "Um, I was wondering if we could…talk."

"Okay then," Alex inquires, placing her wine glass on the coffee table. "So talk."

Casey takes in a shaky deep breath and shakily nods her head. "R-right. Um, did you really mean what you said? When you said that you were in love with me?"

Alex closes her eyes and heaves a small sigh before she reopens them and nods her head in confirmation. "I did, yes. I meant every word of it."

"Is that why you got me those baseball tickets? And why you don't like Jennifer?"

"I got you those baseball tickets because I knew that you said you would like to go, and I thought you would like them. And as shameful as it is for me to admit it, yes, that's why I don't like Jennifer. Is that the answer you were searching for?"

Casey opens her mouth and closes it as she wraps her arms around herself. "I don't know what to say Alex. This is all just so…sudden, and I don't know what you expect me to do, I don't know what I'm supposed to say to you. You made my life hell at work, and now you're suddenly being nice, and I just…I don't know what to do Alex."

"Well, to be honest, I don't think that I expected you to do anything." Alex says with a light shrug. "Whatever your decisions may be, they're yours. Lovely necklace by the way."

Casey's hand flies to the pendant once more, and a feint blush creeps it's way to her cheeks having had Alex notice the necklace. "Thanks, it was a Christmas present."

"Ah, I see." Alex exclaims, nodding her head as she succeeds to keep the evident frustration and anger off her face. "So I assume that you had a wonderful Christmas then?"

"Yeah, it was…it was nice, and yours?"

"It was alright, you know, for a holiday. I never really look forward to holidays. I just suppose I'm not a holiday person."

Casey swallows thickly, and shakily nods her head once again. "Y-yeah…right…"

Alex tilts her head to the side and slowly begins to approach the woman on the opposite side of the room. "Casey, is something wrong? Am I making you uncomfortable?"

Shaking her head, Casey swallows another lump that has formed in her throat, and involuntarily takes a small step back. "N-no, I just have a lot on my mind that's all." she murmurs, slightly cursing that that was the confident truth.

Alex hums as she continues to approach the redhead, making up for the small distance that was put between them. "Are you sure that there's nothing wrong?" she asks again, her voice having dropped down to a sultry purr.

"I-I'm sure…" Casey stutters out once again, suddenly becoming well aware of their close proximities. She feels like her skin is on fire when she feels hands reach out and gently settle at her waist.

Her eyes widen as she realizes that Alex is getting closer, but it's as if all of her muscles have gone stiff at the exact same time. Her breath hitches in her throat as the blonde's lips are only a breath away from her own. "A-A-Alex, w-what're you d-doing…"

"Mmmm nothing," Alex hums seductively before she leans closer and softly kisses Casey's lips.

Casey's eyes widen, but she's so petrified at what's transpiring, her mind can't seem to rationalize itself enough to get her to move. "Alex, no, you can't-"

"Shhh, it's okay." Alex whispers before she kisses Casey's lips once more again, and again, and again.

Casey still stands completely wide eyed and frozen as Alex continues to kiss her repeatedly. She is even more shot from reality when she feels nails lightly grazing the skin just above the waistband of her jeans.

_ 'What the hell is happening...'_

**-Eeeee that's that whole bittersweet thing that I was talking about. Well on the brighter side, Casey and Abbie are talking again. **

**-Hmm, interesting responses on my question from last chapter. **

**-Chapter Question: What would be a different side pairing in my next AC story that you all wouldn't mind seeing for a change? Feel like mixing things up every now and again with the minor characters. Leave your feedback!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hm, as much as I would like to address a few of the reviews left this past time around, I'm not going to. So for those still reading, hope ya like this one.**

Casey blinks rapidly before she places her hands on Alex's shoulders and steps away shaking her head. "No, you can't…you can't do that. I'm seeing someone, and you can't just do that."

Alex sighs and folds her arms tightly across her chest. "Casey you have to understand-"

"What is it that I have to understand?! That just because you have feelings for me, that automatically means that I-I'm obligated to kiss you; despite the fact that you are very well aware that I'm seeing someone?! That's not fair Alex, it doesn't work like that. I pinned over you for months when I first started working for you, and I would have done something except you treated me like your slave."

Alex's eyes widen at the new found information, and her mouth opens and closes several times, but yet she fails to come up with something intelligent to say. "I-I, Casey, I had no idea."

Casey laughs bitterly despite the frustrated tears that have sprung to her eyes and are threatening to fall. "Of course you didn't! How could you? You were so busy making me life hell that it never once occurred to you that I could have had feelings for you, that I DID have feelings for you. Now, someone else comes into my life and you suddenly get all territorial like I belong to you."

"Casey, I never once said that-"

"You didn't have to! Not directly anyway. Jennifer told me the things that you said to her, and it all makes sense now, why the two of you dislike each other, why you just spontaneously showed up on my date with her. You were jealous. You ARE jealous."

Groaning in frustration, Alex rakes her hands through her hair before her eyes lock on Casey's once more. "I struggle with my feelings Casey. You have no idea how many times I wanted to tell you, but I just couldn't for fear of rejection. I don't know how to express when I like someone, let alone express when I've fallen deeply in love with them."

"It's called being nice Alex," Casey snips, her tears once again threatening to fall due to her emotions. "You could have at least tried to treat me like I'm a person. Jennifer makes me feel special, Alex. She makes me feel special and beautiful, and she treats me like she loves me. Why was it so hard for you to do that? Were you embarrassed?"

"No, it's not that, it's just…it was hard for me because I'm just not good with feelings Casey, I'm not. As far as everyone is concerned, I have a total of one emotion, and that is the emotion that everyone sees at work. I was raised that way, and it's just how I am. How I treated you, it was wrong, I know that, and I'm sorry, but that was the only way that I felt I could express any kind of affection, the only way that I could be around you."

Shaking her head, Casey allows her tears of frustration to fall as she looks away to something else in the room. She's so confused right now, and it's as if everything has intruded on her mind at once. She just doesn't know what to think about any of this.

Sighing, Alex steps in front of Casey's line of vision, her eyes practically begging the redhead to look at her. "Now that I've been honest with you, I want you to be honest with me. You cannot say, that through all of this, you have not once thought about me in any other way than our professional relationship."

Casey closes her eyes and she tightens her arms around herself seeking her own personal comfort. "I-I don't know…I have, but you-"

Alex holds up her hand and shakes her head, her voice dropping to a sensitive and sincere tone. "That's all I wanted to know. Now, do you love Jennifer?"

With widened and glistening eyes, Casey opens her mouth again, only for it to snap shut only seconds later. It's a question that she has thought about on several different occasions, and she's always come up with the same conclusion; she doesn't know. She can tell from the way that JJ looks at her that her eyes are filled with nothing but love and admiration, but Casey can't help but wonder does she look at her the same way? The answer is probably a negative, and that could explain why the agent has refrained from mentioning anything about those three special little words.

Looking back up at Alex, Casey shakes her head before squeezing her eyes shut. "I don't know, I'm so confused…"

"Why are you confused?" is the innocent sounding, yet inquisitive reply.

Casey's eyes snap open, and her gaze hardens at Alex's sudden naivety. "What do you mean, 'why am I confused'!? I'm already seeing someone, and then you come along and just kiss me like that, and how am I NOT supposed to be confused?!" she all but shouts, becoming frustrated that the blonde is indeed so calm about all of this.

A look of neutrality crosses over Alex's features, and her eyes soften to a shade that Casey has never seen before. "I'm not sure that you know what it is you want Casey."

"Do not tell me what I do and do not know Alexandra, I think I'm fairly sure that I would know better than you."

"While that may be true, I think you missed what I'm saying. If you knew what you wanted, you wouldn't be confused. If you were sure on what you wanted, you wouldn't have allowed me to kiss you, especially for that long with out doing anything. If you knew what you wanted, you wouldn't have stated that you are confused, but you would have used your relationship with Jennifer against me stating that I shouldn't have kissed you because you're seeing someone, not because it confused you. So frankly, no, I don't think you know what you want."

Casey's mouth snaps shut and her heart comes to a screeching halt as she realizes that Alex is right. Why else would she be this confused? It all strangely makes sense, and it's making her slightly sick to her stomach. She shakes her head once more and heaves a shaky sigh as her heart rate ever so slowly begins to return to normal. "I guess…I guess I don't know what I want."

Alex nods her head in agreement, and surprisingly keeps her tone from going brash or forceful. "I think that you need to figure some things out."

"I think I do." Casey mumbles quietly, glancing down at her shoes. "I should go. I'll see you at work…"

Alex nods once again and quietly shows Casey to the door. As the redhead is leaving, Alex knows that she still has a lot of confessing to do, it's just a matter of getting up to that point. She's just going to continue to take this one baby step at a time, starting with her attitude.

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan; December 30****th**

"I'm gonna die in here. I'm going to die in here, and on my tombstone it will say that I was brutally murdered by an over extensive amount of paperwork that's what's going to happen. That's how I'll die, and that's how I will be remembered. I will forever be known as Kim Greyleck, the woman who was killed by a job that she didn't even want." The brunette rambles on as she paces back and forth continuously.

Serena and Casey stare up at her from where they've made their selves comfortable into of the chairs across from the desk. If they didn't know any better, they would say that Kim has been pacing and rambling on for the past fifteen minutes, but who's counting?

"Well, at least you have the bigger office." Casey offers trying to lighten up the mood a little.

Kim shoots her a glare before she vigorously shakes her head and continues her pacing. "I didn't even want to move! I was quite happy with the little cozy box that I called an office, but noooo 'with the larger job, you require the larger office' said Liz. Noooo 'you'll do just fine, plus you'll need the space' said Liz. Do I even look like I wanted to do this? Oh god I sure hope this is temporary because I don't understand how Abbie does this on a daily basis. Of all people, why did the old bag have to put ME in charge!? Serena you are more than qualified to do this."

Serena makes a face of disgust and shakes her head. "And you're not? No, I don't do well under extensive amounts of work."

"Meaning, that with Abbie's job, you couldn't just blow off stuff like you do with yours." Casey rephrases humming.

"Exactly," Serena responds curtly nodding her head. "Well look on the bright side, you finally have the right to tell me what to do."

"I do that anyway." Kim says plopping down in what is still technically Abbie's chair. "I gotta say though, this chair is amazing. I think I might take it and switch it with mine before Abbie comes back. Think she'll notice?"

Casey thinks for a moment before she shakes her head. "Nah, just do it quickly after everyone has left for the day."

"And play stupid if she asks you about it." Serena adds on, examining her hand, deeming it time for yet another manicure. "Assuming that this is temporary and not permanent."

Kim's eyes widen to the size of car tires and she quickly shakes her head, her brown hair splaying over her shoulders. "It better be temporary. I wasn't looking for a promotion. And if Liz does decide to keep things this way, even after she lifts Abbie's suspension, this job right here might as well be yours Serena."

"And why is that?"

"Well think about it. Who else would be left to manage the unit after Abbie kills me, and is then sent to prison for murder?"

Casey can't help but burst into hysteric laughter upon seeing the look of utter horror on Serena's face. Oh what a wonderful, wonderful bunch of friends she has. "That is a completely and utterly hilarious scenario that I can most definitely see happening. But all jokes aside, do you know how pissed, and I do mean PISSED Abbie would be if she comes back and finds she got demoted?"

"I'd be a dead woman." Kim states blandly as she stares into oblivion. "She would kill me, publicly and not care about going to prison. Oh god guys, I'm not ready to die yet."

The other two can't help but snicker at their friend's slight dilemma. Granted, they both do know how upset Abbie will be if she comes back and finds she's been demoted, and they all pray that that's a bridge that they will never have to cross.

"Aside from Kim possibly losing her life in the near future," Serena begins as she starts to change the topic of discussion. "Are the two of you looking forward to that stupid New Years Eve party?"

"No," Kim says flatly, not really being a party person. "We are lawyers and we work for the DA's office, where in Liz's brain does she think that we need to have a New Years Eve party."

"Maybe it's her idea of saying that she's going to force us to relax and get the sticks out of our asses." Casey states shrugging earning a groan and eye rolls from her friends. "What, it's true."

Kim makes a face and turns her head to Serena. "Why, are you bringing Doctor Barbie to the party?"

Serena rolls her eyes and crosses her arms tightly across her chest. "Yes, I'm bringing her, and I really wish that you wouldn't refer to her as that, she's a really intelligent woman."

"She looks like a Barbie doll, bet she acts like one too. What is she, a foot doctor?"

"Is this the doctor that you're seeing?" Casey asks curiously, thoroughly interested to learn about the woman that she's only heard about in Abbie's depressed rants.

Serena glares at Kim but nonetheless nods her head at Casey's question. "Yes, and she is not a foot doctor Kim, she is a _cardiologist_. I've told you this several times. You all can meet her tomorrow night if you promise to behave."

"I will make no such promise." Kim states firmly, placing her hand over her heart in an official manner earning another glare from the agitated blonde.

Casey snickers at the exchange between the two women, an exchange that should have been broken by the ringing of the desk phone, though neither says anything. "Someone should get that." she states pointing to the phone.

Kim sighs heavily and pretends to beat herself over the head with a bat as she answers the phone. "Greyleck…yes she is….really? Okay, I'll tell her, thank you." she then hangs up the phone and turns to Casey. "There's someone waiting for you in your office.

Casey sighs before she stands up from her chair. "Back to work I suppose. I'll catch you guys later." She says as she exits the office, making her way back to the elevator to retreat back to her own.

Stepping off of the elevator, Casey makes her way down the hall to her office, and rounds the corner, wondering if it's something that case related, or just one of the detectives looking for her. She freezes in the doorway however, when she sees who it is that's occupying her desk chair. "Jennifer?"

JJ smiles and stands up from the chair as Casey slowly enters her office closing the door behind her. "Surprise."

"You, what're you…" Casey has to pause and swallow before she can come up with a coherent sentence. "What're you doing here? You didn't call, you didn't say anything about coming you-mmm" she is then cut off by a pair of lips firmly but gently pressed against her own.

"You talk too much." JJ whispers giving the redhead one last peck on the lips. "It's almost New Years, and I thought I'd come up and surprise you. What better way to break in the New Year than with my lovely girlfriend?"

Casey smiles and pulls JJ into a tight hug. Her smile falters a little as her mind thinks back to her talk with Alex, and she wonders if she needs to have the very same talk with JJ.

**-Strangely enough, Alex did make some sense up there in her talk with Casey when she said that if Casey knew what she wanted, she wouldn't be confused. And I think what a few of you failed to realize, Alex kissed Casey, not anywhere in there did I write that Casey kissed back. Just thought I'd say that. **

**-I personally loved that talk scene up there between Kim, Casey and Serena. Personally I know that Kim's character is no where near that on the show, but I can't help but write her any other way than the way I do. I've fallen in love with that creation as well, Hehehe. Just like I'm not sure if the DA's office has New Years parties, but damnit in this story they're going to. **

**-Lastly, back to my question the last chapter when I told you guys to pick a new pairing you wouldn't mind seeing, for those that did answer, I saw that Kim/Abbie was the kinda mentioned more than once. I've got to admit, I am interested, and if I were you guys, I'd look for it in the future. As well as the others I might sneak in there ;) enough of my talking. Leave your feedback!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: This chapter….hmmmm…is all I'm gonna say. Hope ya enjoy. **

**New Years Eve Party; December 31****st**

"Well this is awkward…" Kim mutters as she stands in between Abbie, Casey and JJ as the four of them watch Serena laughing about something with Alex and the not so affectionately dubbed 'Doctor Barbie'.

"So that's the doctor." Casey says nodding her head towards the trio of blondes. "Something about her seems…"

"Arrogant." JJ adds in, frowning at the way that the woman carries herself. She's seen women like this before, and they are definitely not what she likes to deal with on a regular basis.

A low growl escapes from Abbie's lips as she clutches her champagne glass tighter in her grip. She's pretty sure that she wouldn't have come had someone told her that Serena would be there with her new play toy. It's obviously the last thing that she wants to see. "No one said that _she_ was going to be here…"

"Kinda forgot." Kim states with a shrug before she takes a sip from her own glass. "Just like _someone _forgot to mention Agent Sexy was gonna be here."

"…Agent Sexy?" JJ queries, slightly tilting her head to the side at the reference she can't help but feel like is made towards her.

Casey pales and wraps her arm tighter around JJ's waist directing the attention from Kim's preposterous nickname. "Um, hey look, they're coming over here!" she explains in reference to the approaching group.

The foursome can't help but chuckle at how Alex rolls her eyes and makes a silent gagging sound as Serena giggles at something that the doctor says.

"You're so funny." Serena quips, as she sends each of her friends minus Abbie an individual glare not to mess anything up. "Guys, this is Doctor Lindsey Hale. Lindsey, these are my friends. You've met Alex, but this is Casey Novak, her girlfriend, Jennifer Jareau, and Kim Greyleck. Oh…and this is Abbie Carmichael." The blonde concludes in a low grumble, barely casting a reasonable glance towards her ex lover.

Lindsey shakes hands with each individual woman, except when she comes to Abbie, where the brunette coldly declines the formal gesture. The two glare at each other for a silent moment before the doctor retracts her hand and clears her throat. "Right, well, it's a pleasure to meet all of you."

"So um, Jennifer here, is an FBI Agent," Serena says randomly, trying to bring down the heightened tension between the group.

"Really, is that so?" Lindsey says smiling at the blonde that was obviously taken by surprise at being mentioned. "What unit?"

"Um, Behavioral Analysis." JJ responds, feeling a little awkward in the situation.

"Oh I see, you're a profiler. I'm assuming that the rest of you work for the DA's office as well, correct me if I'm wrong. I've heard so much about some of you." the doctor concludes, the last part of her sentence directed more towards Abbie than the rest of the group.

Kim seizes the opportunity to clear her throat loudly and draw the attention of the two angry women sizing each other up. "Well, all good things I hope. So, Serena tells us you're a _foot doctor_." She concludes with a smirk, earning a glare from Serena and a snicker from the rest of the group.

A confused expression crosses the doctor's face as she glances at Serena before turning back to the group, smiling awkwardly. "Oh, um, no actually, I'm a cardiologist. That's a heart doctor for those who may not be aware." She concludes, once again with a look towards Abbie.

"Oh, look, Alex, is that Detective Rollins over there?" Kim says spontaneously, pointing off into the crowd. "Weren't you looking for her earlier?"

Alex makes a face and squints as she looks for the mentioned detective. "I don't recall saying-"

"C'mon, let's go find her." the brunette says quickly, grabbing Alex's arm, desperate to get away from the awkwardly brewing conversation.

JJ squeezes Casey's hand, and she discretely nods as they stealthily slink their way from the group. The blonde leads the way through the crowd of people, and makes her way to a quiet disclosed corner, where they can have a talk.

"Casey, are you alright?" Jennifer asks curiously, her voice laced with worry. "You haven't been yourself since I got here yesterday. What's going on?"

Sighing heavily, Casey drags her hand through her hair, and looks at the floor, refusing to make eye contact with the woman in front of her. She's been avoiding this for as long as she possibly could, and maybe the reason that JJ mentioned it now, is because that they need to have this talk, now. "I don't know how to explain what's going on, I really don't. I just know I'm confused."

"What're you confused about? Can I help?" the blonde asks worriedly.

"No, yes, no, I don't know Jen. I'm confused about you, me, my feelings, how I feel…" Casey stutters not really knowing where this is going. "I think I'm confused about us."

A look of concern flashes across JJ's face, and she shakes her head in her own confusion. "I don't understand…what's confusing about us? I thought…I thought we were fine. I thought everything was fine. Was it something that I did?"

"Jay, you've been perfect, you are perfect. It's nothing that you've done. It's me, and my feelings, I'm just so confused and Alex-"

"Whoa, wait. This is about Alex? What did she say…?" the agent questions, her hurt slowly starting to be replaced by her anger.

Casey places her hands on JJ's shoulders, sensing the blonde's anger beginning to rise. "She-she, didn't say anything." She lies, "This is something that I realized on my own."

JJ stands completely silent for a long moment before she looks away, shaking her head. "You're lying. Casey, you can't lie to me, I can tell. What did she do?"

Casey hesitates for a long moment and nervously bites the inside of her cheek. "She kissed me, but-"

"SHE KISSED YOU?!" JJ screeches, unable to mask her anger any longer towards the blonde attorney. She briefly glances over Casey's shoulder, and finds said blonde attorney, making direct eye contact with her from across the room, and JJ would like nothing more than to wipe that smug look off her face. She narrows her eyes and pushes past Casey but not without murmuring a quick 'I'll be back'.

Casey's eyes widen and she reaches out to grab JJ's hand, but just barely misses do to the blonde's quickened stride. "Oh no…"

"Oh great." Alex mutters as she sees the angry agent heading her way. So much for wanting to avoid any trouble for the night.

"What the fuck is your problem?" JJ demands angrily once she's approached the attorney.

Alex takes another sip of her champagne before she hands the glass to Kim. "Agent Jareau, what a lovely surprise; care for a glass?" she responds casually, motioning to one of the two glasses in Kim's hands.

JJ narrows her eyes and her hands clench into tight fists. "No thanks. Now, back to my original question, what the fuck is your problem?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know damn well what you're talking about, and I don't appreciate you disrespecting me by kissing my girlfriend."

Alex shrugs nonchalantly as she breaks their eye contact, casting a brief look at a worried looking Kim. "It's not like she was stopping me from doing so."

"You need to back off." JJ growls, any intimidation that she had earlier suddenly flying out the window.

Alex frowns and gives the slightly shorter blonde a firm shove. "I thought we made this clear last time that I don't like you being in my face."

JJ laughs bitterly and pushes back, slightly taking Alex off guard and causing her to stumble to the ground due to her heels. "Aw, I'm sorry, did that hurt?"

Kim glances cautiously between the two and speaks up for the first time. "Ladies, maybe we should all just cal-" but before she can even finish, Alex moves with a panther like quickness, and tackles the agent to the floor, ensuing a catfight that no one wants to get in the middle of.

"Oh no…" the brunette groans, still clutching both of the champagne glasses. "Gotta find Liv, gotta find Amanda…gotta find…LIV!" she shouts, pushing through the brewing crowd of people towards the detective, hoping to put some sort of end to this madness.

**Not Too Much Later **

"This was a baaaaaad idea." Amanda mumbles shaking her head.

Olivia shrugs and shoves her hands in her pockets. "It's the only thing I could think of, and when you really think about it, it could actually be beneficial."

"If they don't kill each other…" Casey sighs shaking her head, risking another glance through the one way mirror. "How long are we gonna leave them in there?"

"Until they calm down, and get over whatever it is that started that mess back there." The blonde detective explains shrugging. "Though, you might wanna get Cabot another box of tissues…"

Casey sighs and contemplates going into the interrogation room herself, but she decides against it, deeming it far too soon to be tangled up in that mess.

"Oh god is it still bleeding." Alex groans, holding yet another blood soaked tissue in place.

JJ snorts and shakes her head as she continues to pace the room back and forth. "Tilt your head back, the bleeding should subside then." She mutters before she turns her attention back to her pacing. She approaches the one way mirror and bangs on it, causing the three women on the other side to take a full step back. "This is keeping a hostage you know. You have no right to keep me here."

"They're gonna stay in there until they talk this out." Casey mumbles seeing the right of passage in the situation. She just hopes that they don't end up killing each other. "C'mon, we'll give them privacy so they can talk."

The detectives cast a glance through the window once more before they follow Casey out of the observation room, leaving the two blondes in the interrogation room to settle whatever the problem is.

JJ groans in frustration and retreats to her own corner in the interrogation room. Of course, isn't this just a wonderful way to ring in the New Year; first her girlfriend sounds like she's about to break up with her, and now she's trapped in a room with a woman that she has not so affectionately dubbed as Satan himself.

"I wanna thank you for breaking my nose, it's been my life's dream of having a broken nose you know." Alex says sarcastically breaking the silence.

"If you had just backed off like I told you to do back in hmm, I don't know, DECEMBER, you wouldn't be sitting there with a broken nose." JJ responds begrudgingly. "And keep your head tilted back, unless you like bleeding all over the place."

Alex narrows her eyes but nevertheless, she does as she's told, and she tilts her head back, but not before placing another tissue to the injured area. "What's your problem anyway?"

"My problem is you trying to take away my girlfriend. That's my problem. I tend to have a problem when someone else kisses her, I wasn't sure if you were aware of that or not." the agent snarks sarcastically causing the attorney to roll her eyes.

"Like I said before, it's not as if she was stopping me from kissing her. If she had, then why didn't she tell you right away?"

JJ opens her mouth to respond, but snaps it shut when she realizes that she doesn't have an answer. Unfortunately, Alex sees this as ammunition.

"See, that's what I thought." She laughs bitterly, "Things aren't as perfect as you had assumed them to be."

"I'm not discussing this with you." JJ mumbles, her anger slowly beginning to be replaced my hurt once more. She thinks back to the necklace that she bought Casey for Christmas, and she wonders if it even means anything anymore…or if it even meant anything to begin with.

Alex shrugs her shoulder and turns her attention back to her nose, mentally celebrated that it's finally stopped bleeding. "That's fine, you don't have to. I just want you to know that you're at a slight disadvantage here Jennifer."

"Hm, and pray tell, what disadvantage is that?"

"Well think about it. You live all the way in DC, and more than half the time, your job requires you to be in some random part of the country. While in contrast, my residence, and my occupation allows me to stay in New York. Need I say more?"

JJ falls completely silent at Alex's revelation, and she draws her knees up to her chest to rest her head on them. As much as it kills her to admit it, Satan's finest does have a point.

**Whelp, that was…interest wasn't it? I thought it was. Wonder what's gonna happen next :3 and I'm beginning to like to play around with this 'Doctor Barbie' hehehehe love that reference. Anyway, leave your feedback! **


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Huh, this story is gonna turn out to be longer than I first thought it would…go figure. **

**This chapter made me sad…and happy...and sad at the same time. I have a tendency to do things like that when I'm writing. Hope you enjoy! **

"You know we only put the two of you in there for your own good right? I mean, you didn't kill each other so that has to mean something…right?" Casey asks carefully once she turns off her car.

JJ crosses her arms and turns her head to where she is intensely glaring out the passenger side window. Her lips purse into a thin little line, and she isn't sure what's bothering her more, being trapped in a room with Alex, or listening to everything that Alex had to say while they were trapped in that room.

Casey sighs, and rests her head on the steering wheel as she realizes that the blonde hasn't said anything the whole trip from the precinct. Granted, she knew that JJ was going to be a little upset, but she hadn't exactly anticipated silent treatment upset. "Jen, I know you're probably upset about being trapped in a room with Alex but-"

"That's not what I'm upset about." JJ says firmly, still keeping her gaze locked on whatever it is she's staring outside, anything to keep from making eye contact with the woman beside her.

"If that's not what you're upset about, then what ARE you upset about?" Casey asks carefully, trying to make sure that she isn't treading in dangerous waters.

"I am upset because you allowed her to kiss you." JJ responds tersely, her patience starting to wear very thin; and she's usually been known to be a very patient person.

Casey closes her eyes briefly and her hands involuntarily grip the steering wheel tighter, though they've remained stationary for quite some time now. "And you're going to listen to what Alex says?" she asks curiously. Granted, the last thing that she is going to do is to lie to JJ but she wants to see where their level of trust is first.

JJ tears her gaze away for the window and she stares hard into Casey's curious eyes. "Is she lying, Casey?"

"Jennifer, all I was asking was-"

"Is. She. Lying. Casey." The blonde articulates slowly, trying to her point across in saying that she wants all questions answered before she's going to move on.

Casey snaps her mouth shut and turns her head to where she is staring directly out of the windshield. She knows that she needs to say something, but she has absolutely no idea of how she wants to say it. What is she supposed to say; no, she's not lying, and I'm an idiot for letting her do it. Well, now that she thinks about it that would actually be a very good start. Unfortunately, her silence has given her girlfriend all of the answers that she needs.

JJ shakes her head and folds her arms tightly, as she is now the one who doesn't know what to say. The very last thing she wanted to do was believe any of the things that Alex had said in the interrogation room, but now all of them seem to make more and more sense.

"Jennifer, I-I wouldn't…she caught me off guard, I didn't know what to do I was just…so confused when she did I just…I'm sorry."

JJ shakes her head again before she unbuckles her seatbelt. "We should go inside…" she mumbles before she exits the car, leaving no more room for discussion…for now.

Casey sighs as she realizes that this is going to be the longest and world's most awkward walk up to her apartment; and that it is. Neither woman speaks as they make their way down the hall, and as soon as they step the door, JJ makes a beeline for Casey's bedroom, where all her stuff is. She picks her go bag off the floor and places it on the bed where she immediately begins shoving her things back into it.

"Jay, where are you going?" Casey asks sadly, upon seeing her girlfriend's rash and tense movements.

"I think I'm gonna drive back DC." The blonde murmurs as she zips the bag, her hands shaking from her hurt and anguish.

Casey raises her eyebrows and checks the time on the clock on her nightstand. "But, it's like one thirty in the morning. It'll five am before you make it home." she says quietly, knowing she's the reason that JJ wants to leave. "I'm sorry."

JJ huffs and flattens her hands on the mattress before she finally makes eye contact with Casey. "Were you wearing that necklace when she kissed you…"

Casey's hand travels to the diamond circle pendant that still hangs around her neck. "I-I haven't taken it off. I mean, except when I shower, but…I haven't…I wouldn't cheat on you…"

"But you'll let someone else kiss you. I'm glad to see that my Christmas present meant a whole lot to you Casey."

JJ's tone actually takes Casey completely by surprise. She's never heard her speak like that to well…anyone, and the tone it self actually betrays the agent's usually mellow demeanor. "J-Jay, it does mean something to me. I didn't know that she was going to-I'm so sorry. I'm just so confused right now…"

JJ nods and slings her go bag over her shoulder. "Right, you're confused over which of us you'd rather be with. Do I even stand a chance anymore Casey? Did I even stand one to begin with?"

"Jennifer, please I'm trying, okay? Can we just…forget about this, and just go to bed, and maybe talk about it in the morning?" the redhead begs quietly, knowing that she is probably fighting a losing battle.

JJ shakes her head, and casts her gaze down to the floor as she adjusts the strap of her bag once more. "I can't just forget about this Casey, and I can't just forget about it because I love you." she pauses as she sees the stunned and in-shock expression come across Casey's face. "I-I was waiting for the right time to tell you, but since now I see that you're confused and you don't know, I'm glad I didn't say it first. I really should go…you can, call me when you figure things out, and we can talk about where we stand with…us. But right now, I really need to go."

There is once again silence between them as Casey follows the blonde back to the front door. "I'm sorry…" she mutters quietly, feeling like all of this is her fault.

"Me too." JJ responds before she reaches down and brings Casey's hand to her lips. She gives the hand a tight squeeze before releasing it and disappearing down the hall.

Casey leans against the doorframe for the longest of times before she forces her legs to take her back into the apartment. She wanders her way through the living room, and collapses onto the couch as the first tear makes its trek down her cheek.

**The Next Evening; 8:25 pm **

"How is your nose?" Casey asks as Alex hands her another glass of wine. "It doesn't look as bad."

Alex shakes her head and takes a sip of her own glass before making herself comfortable next to the redhead on her sofa. "The blood only made it look worst than it actually was. You actually can't even tell; it was only a small fracture. I thought you said that she was going to be leaving some time in the next two days, at least, that's what I heard from Kim."

Casey sighs as she absentmindedly begins to run her finger around the rim of the wine glass. She brings the ruby liquid to her lips once more, and savors the taste as it travels down her throat. "S-she…she decided that she was going to leave last night. I really wish that you two hadn't fought like that…"

"She started it by pushing me down, and she shouldn't have come over to where I was in the first place."

"She was only being a good girlfriend…after I told her that you kissed me…"

Alex hums as she takes another sip of her wine, and she tucks her feet under herself on the couch. "I would suppose, but still. So in turn, that's why she left, because I kissed you."

Casey nods her head and averts her eyes to anything other than Alex's gaze. "Yeah…she seemed…pretty upset. But she has a right to be. I wouldn't be surprised if she never calls me again."

"Hey, don't think like that. You're an amazing woman, and if she decides to throw that away, then that is completely her loss." Alex says sincerely, a small smile curling at her lips when she sees Casey blush at the compliment.

"I don't know…I guess I'll just give her some time. I wish she hadn't just walked out like that though…there was so much that I wanted to say. But like I said, the ball was in her court, and she has a right to be upset with me. I am so stupid, I just need to be struck down for being an idiot."

Just then there is a loud crash of thunder, a flash of lightening, and the lights go out. Casey narrows her eyes into the darkness and huffs loudly. "Okay, I wasn't serious…"

Alex chuckles as she feels around for her cell phone. Seconds later, she produces a small light that replaces that of a flashlight as she stands up from the sofa. "Looks like that storm is here." she says as she begins moving around to look for candles.

Casey frowns and wraps her arms around herself as she watches Alex with the miniature light. "Since when do cell phones have flashlights?" she asks curiously.

"Since Kim made me buckle down and buy an iPhone. Apparently there really is an app for everything because I found this flashlight app and I realized that it might come in hand one day. Guess I was right." The blonde says as she lights a few candles around her apartment giving it a warm glow. She then proceeds to place another log in her fireplace before lighting that as well, adding to the flickering light in the living room. "Christ, its cold in here."

Casey hums as she places her glass on the coffee table and then proceeds to make her way over to one of the large wall length windows as Alex disappears to another random part of her apartment. She stares out into the night but realizes that she can't see much due to the heavy onslaught of rain and excessive amount of lightening.

"Hey, are you alright?" Alex asks out of nowhere as she spreads a blanket in front of the fireplace, wincing when she sees that silhouette of the redhead flinch. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Casey nods her head and proceeds to where Alex has made herself comfortable in front of the fireplace. She takes a deep breath and takes a seat in front of the blonde who seems to be checking something on her cell phone.

"Well, the weather services say that there are a massive string of storms moving in and they urge everyone to say inside." Alex says reading the report from her phone.

Casey sighs heavily and brings her knees up to her chest. "Great, well at least the weather outside matches my mood now."

"You're really torn up because Jennifer left huh?"

"It's not that, it's just…I don't know how I feel anymore. She said-…well, she said a lot of things that got to me last night, and this is just all my fault because I'm just so confused, and horrible when it comes to feelings. I've never had people…care for me like this."

Alex chuckles as she reaches over and places her phone on the coffee table. "Let alone having people fight over you like this right? Well like I said before, if Jennifer wants to give up on you then that is her loss, you're a beautiful woman who deserves to be cared for and taken care of. I just wish you'd let me do that." she concludes quietly.

Casey sighs again as she wraps her arms around herself in a protective manner. "I don't need you to spend your money on me."

"No one needs money to be spent on them Casey, but everyone deserves to feel pampered every now and again. I wouldn't do anything that you wouldn't want me to. If anything, I'd show you how much I love you." Alex then drops her voice to a sultry whisper and she scoots closer to the redhead on the blanket. She reaches her hand out and her fingers lightly ghost the back of Casey's neck as her thumb caresses her cheek. "I would make you feel loved, and appreciated. I wouldn't walk out on you just because I was upset with you. I would stay and hold you as we figured out what the problem was, together."

In a matter of seconds, Casey finds herself in the exact same position that she was in a week ago; with Alex only millimeters away from her, and she once again finds herself not doing a damn thing about it.

Slowly, just like that night before, Alex moves in and presses her lips against Casey's, softly, yet firmly at the same time. She holds the kiss for a moment and is about to pull away when she is surprised by the feeling of fingers tangling in her hair, pulling her in closer as the kiss deepens.

Everything seems to be happening in a speedy slow motion for Casey, and her heart is bounding heavily in her chest that it is probably equivalent to the decibels of the thunder from the raging storm outside. It's almost as if she's floating, and her body has decided to take on a mind of it's own without her consent. More so to the fact that when she comes back to reality, all of their clothes thrown into a pile next to the blanket, and Casey finds herself on her back panting and involuntarily clawing at the bare skin of Alex's back while the blonde's fingers thrust in and out of her at a pleasurable pace.

"Oh, Alex…" Casey finds herself moaning as she feels her climax beginning to near. It's almost as if she's teetering over the edge of the grand canyon with nothing but a thin little sewing thread holding her in place. Only minutes later does she find herself calling out the blondes name in ecstasy before her cry is muffled by a well placed kiss that leaves her head spinning.

Alex helps Casey ride out her orgasm before she pulls out her fingers and licks them clean. She tilts her head when she sees a single tear roll down Casey's cheek and she leans down to gently kiss it away. "It's okay _ma belle_, no need for you to cry." She whispers as she gently places soft kisses to the woman's neck.

Casey swallows the thick lump in her throat when she feels Alex roll off of her and spoon her from behind, their warm naked bodies pressed flushed against each other as they still lie on the floor in front of the fireplace. She feels another soft kiss to her neck, and an arm wrap protectively around her waist as a hand begins drawing various patterns on her stomach.

They lie in complete silence, and Casey finds herself at another struggle as another tear makes its way down her cheek followed by several more only seconds later. She squeezes her eyes shut in hopes that will help them subside, but she soon finds that effort futile as the pour like the rain out side. Her hand then travels up to graze the diamond infinity circle than is around her neck, and she wonders if she even deserves to wear it anymore.

**Awwww snap. Sorry I didn't get this out sooner. I had a lot to do today. My sister…she's an idiot when it comes to automobiles. That's all I'm gonna say. Leave your feedback!**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: This chapter turned out to be longer than I thought it would, but I'm sure that you guys won't mind that at all. Hope you enjoy it!**

Casey awakens the next morning earlier than she usually would. She can still heart the continuous pour of rain from outside followed by a low mumble of thunder as she stares into the remaining flickers from the fire in the fireplace. Upon waking up, her first initial thought is why did she fall asleep on the floor, but then she realizes she's naked and all of the memories come flooding back from last night.

The cloud coverage from the outside casts dim, feint grey lighting around the apartment and Casey snuggles further under the throw blanket they had fallen asleep under before the night had ended. She still feels an arm protectively wrapped around her midsection, one of the only things keeping her warm, and she listens to the even sound of Alex's breathing.

There is a small sense of relief upon realizing that the blonde is still asleep, but that small sense of relief is soon over washed by a large pang of guilt. Casey feels heaviness in the pit of her stomach, and the lump in her throat is enough to make her want to shed tears all over again. Had she really done what she did? What had she been thinking or was she even thinking at all? How could she do a thing like this when she said that she wouldn't? The questions are endless, and as reality begins to set in even more, her eyes once again become wet with tears.

The sad thing that she realizes is the fact that she's thoroughly comfortable where she is lying at the moment. Actually, she was until she realized what a dirty thing she's done, but comfortable nevertheless. The feeling of being held by someone, someone who loves her, and cares for her, someone who didn't walk out on her when she needed them to be there is a feeling that she just wants to revel in.

Casey has never been more confused over something in her life. Then again, she's always found herself to be socially awkward, and she never thought that she herself would be stuck in the middle of a love triangle where two typically untouchable women are competing for something as insignificant (by her own standards) as her heart. In fact, Casey can honestly say that she's never really been in something that can be classified as a 'real relationship'. A random fling that only lasted a day or less doesn't really count in her book, and the one time that she does have a chance to be in a real relationship with someone, something has to come along and complicate things as well as compromise her feelings. She sighs once more at the thought of just how complicated her personal life has become in the past few months. Apparently she's been sighing too much, because she hears a soft groan, and Alex begin to shift behind her.

"I think I'm just gonna be honest here, and say that I'm actually surprised that you didn't run out on me this morning." the blonde murmurs jokingly.

Casey manages a nervous chuckle as she plays with the hand that is resting cozily at her abdomen. "Well, it's kinda hard to when the notoriously cold Alex Cabot is a secret snuggler." she replies teasingly.

Alex hums and presses a kiss to the redhead's shoulder. "Guess, I'm just full of a lot of surprises then, hmm?"

"Yeah…in more ways than one...Listen; I really need to go home. I just remembered that I have a lot to do.'" Casey says as she wiggles from Alex's hold and begins to pull on her clothes.

"Are you sure that you have to go? You know, it's still raining outside."

"I think that I'll manage…"

Alex sighs as she begins to put on her clothes from the night before as well. "Casey, if you're regretting what happened last night..."

Casey stops her movements as she picks up her car keys. "Can…can we not talk about this now? Right now, I just really need to go home."

"You know we're going to have to talk about it eventually. Everything happens for a reason."

"Sometimes, I'd like to believe that, and I know we're going to have to talk about it eventually, just not now."

Alex nods her head as she follows Casey to the door. "Alright, then when ever you're ready to talk, I'll listen."

Casey shakily nods as she shoves her hands in her pockets. She opens her mouth to say something but closes it as the words get caught in her throat. Eventually, she settles on giving Alex a small smile before departing back to her own home.

The entire drive back to her apartment Casey finds herself gripping her steering wheel mercilessly even after she's stopped the car. As soon as she steps through the door, she is overcome with an extensive amount of guilt that makes her sick to her stomach, and she soon finds herself vomiting into the toilet.

After probably ten minutes of dry heaving, Casey stumbles back into the living room where she scrambles to find her cell phone. She picks up the device and dials the number by heart, praying that the owner is awake.

"Lo?" A sleepy southern accented voice drawls heavily through the receiver.

"A-Abbs, can you…come over?" Casey whimpers, feeling herself on the brink of tears once more.

Upon hearing her best friend in distress, Abbie forces herself to wake up, and climbs out of bed. "Yeah of course, I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

And in fifteen minutes exactly, Casey finds herself curled into a tiny ball on her sofa while her best friend gently runs her fingers through her hair consoling her.

"Oh god Abbie, I'm such a slut…" she cries into the older woman's shoulder.

"You're not a slut Casey, don't say that." Abbie responds seriously, wondering just what happened for the redhead to think she's a slut.

Casey sits up and wipes her eyes before curling back into her little ball in the corner of the sofa. "I-I slept with Alex last night…we had sex, on the floor, in front of the fireplace, and I'm such a fucking whore because of it."

Abbie raises her eyebrows before she awkwardly clears her throat. "Um…wow, but seriously…you're not a slut, you're not a whore, don't think like that. So…what does this mean?"

"This means that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing Abbie. I mean, after Jennifer left that night or early that morning or whatever it was, we didn't technically break up. I-I told her that I wouldn't cheat on her, and-and I did…didn't I? She told me that she loved me, and I was just…I'm still just so confused about everything."

"Whoa, she said the 'L' word?" Abbie questions with widened eyes.

Casey nods her head and covers her eyes with both hands. "She said she loved me Abbie, and I just stared at her completely in shock because I didn't know what else to say."

"How come you didn't say it back? Do you love her?"

"I…I don't know. That's the thing, I'm confused about. I don't know if I love her. I mean, I think I do to some extent, but I'm just now rediscovering my feelings for Alex, and I just don't know where I stand with either of them. JJ has been nothing but super sweet, and loving, and…awesome. But Alex…I think that I could have a lot with Alex in the future. Something that's stable, and meaningful, and I think that she can really take care of me."

"And you don't think Jen can do that?" Abbie asks curiously.

Casey takes a deep breath before slumping her shoulders. "It's not that I don't think she can it's just…I fear that distance will eventually get in the way. I mean sure, we'll both say that it won't but we all know that it will. I mean think about it in terms of a long term relationship. Say, we get so serious to the point where we want to get married. I would hate having to drive three and a half hours to see my wife, and it couldn't happen everyday, and I both know fairly well that neither of us would want to quit our jobs and move. Then there's her job…I would like to think that it wouldn't be a problem, and I would like to tell myself it wouldn't bother me, but honestly, I think I'd be lying. I mean she's constantly in various parts of the country doing god knows what probably getting shot at by god knows who. It'd be worse than being married to a cop. And you know that she fell of a building and didn't' want to tell me?"

"She fell off a building?!" the brunette exclaims, sitting up further at the new found in formation.

"She was actually pushed off a building, but she didn't want to tell me Abbs…I mean, I care about her so much, but, I don't know if we could actually work in the long run. I want us to, believe me I want to believe it, but I'm thinking realistically here. Alex offers stability…"

"Alex also offers all of her Cabot funding…" Abbie mumbles, probably a little louder than necessary.

Casey's eyes widen before a small frown crosses her features. "I wouldn't be with her for her money Abbie, that's probably the last thing I'm thinking about. I think that her money would only be a tiny miniscule bonus, but I honestly haven't thought about that. I think she'd just…offer more in some areas where Jennifer could not, but also at the same time, I think JJ offers in some areas that Alex doesn't."

"She most certainly does." Abbie states nodding her head earning a curious look from her best friend. "All I'm going to say you need to have a serious talk with Jennifer, and an even more serious talk with Alex…for more reasons than one."

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan **

It's been probably two weeks since JJ left, and Casey hasn't heard from the blonde at all, but now that she looks at it, the attorney realizes that she hasn't exactly tried to make that phone call herself either. She's just been so caught up in her thoughts, she couldn't bring herself to pick up the phone and make that call.

To add to her dilemma, she hasn't had that talk with Alex that she needs to have either. But Casey knows that that's a talk that she's been holding off on, a talk that she probably isn't going to initiate herself.

"Hm, sounds like you're in a real dilemma." Serena says as she and Casey make their way to the copy room. "So, you still haven't decided what to do?"

"No, I haven't decided Serena, it's just…really hard, you know?" Casey responds groaning and thumping her head against a wall.

Serena hums as she places her papers on the copy machine and presses the start button. "I can't say that I do…I've never had women fight over me before."

Casey snorts and a small smirk spreads across her face. "They fight over you, they just do it by sending each other silent death glares all through out the night when they know you aren't paying attention."

Sighing, Serena places her hands on her hips and a look of disdain crosses her features. "Well then Abbie needs to realize that the ship has sailed and she needs to get over it."

"C'mon Serena, give her a break."

"You're only saying that because she's your best friend. Like I said, she needs to get over it."

Casey opens her mouth to respond when she snaps her mouth shut upon hearing yelling coming from somewhere down the hall. She curiously walks over to the door of the copy room and cautiously sticks her head into the hall. "Speaking of Abbie…"

"LIZ YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!" Abbie shouts, drawing the attention of probably everyone in the building.

"I do not joke about these types of matters Abigail, and I suggest that you change your tone before I fire you instead." The DA says firmly, matching the fiery glare of the tall brunette. "My decision is final."

"Ugh, Liz, c'mon!"

"**FINAL**, Abigail."

Serena joins Casey in the doorway and peers down the hall where her ex seems to be engaged in a heated shouting match with their boss. "Wonder what that's about…"

"Abbie, this wasn't my decision, I'm sorry." Kim apologizes as she struggles to keep up with the angry brunette's pace down the hall.

"Don't talk to me Kim. I don't want to hear it right now." Abbie grumbles, feeling like she wants to burn down the entire DA's office. She would do it too if it didn't mean that she'd go to prison for arson.

Kim sighs heavily before she continues on with her apologies. "Please understand that, this isn't exactly what I wanted either, and she just kind of sprung this on me too, I really am sorry."

Abbie growls deeply in her throat when she catches sight of someone out of the corner of her eye. She swiftly turns to her right and purposefully knocks all of the files out of the blonde's hands before swiftly pinning her to the wall.

Alex swears that her heart stops the second that she finds herself being pinned to the wall staring into the eyes of a very furious Abbie Carmichael. She contemplates trying to move, but with the look that Abbie has in her eyes, she figures things will be in her best interest if she doesn't.

"This is entirely your fault, you know that? You need to get your shit together and fucking fess up because I'm pretty much done holding my fucking tongue for you." Abbie hisses before giving the blonde a shove and disappearing down the hall.

Kim stands petrified for the longest of moments before she forces her muscles to move as she squats down to help Alex pick up her fallen files. "What was that about?"

A wide eyed Alex blinks rapidly before she swallows the thick lump in her throat and bends down to help tend to her files. "I fucked up…badly."

**Meanwhile…**

"You know, for the past two weeks, you haven't exactly been yourself. Is everything alright?" Emily asks curiously, glancing over at her best friend briefly before turning back to the road.

JJ sighs before she relaxes her muscles and shakes her head. "I'm fine, please just let it go."

"But Jayje if you feel like you need to talk about it, you know I'm here right?"

"I told you it was fine Emily! Just let it go!"

Emily inwardly flinches at the blonde's tone before she nods her head slowly. "Alright, alright, I get it. I was just saying if you wanted to talk…"

"I don't…" JJ states as the SUV comes to a stop and she takes off her seatbelt. "Now can we just go interview this witness so we can catch this guy and go home?"

Emily sighs and shakes her head as she follows JJ out of the vehicle. The two walk side by side as they make their way up the path way to the two story home that houses their supposed to be star witness.

"Does this street seem strangely quiet to you?" JJ asks as Emily rings the door bell and knocks on the door.

The dark haired agent glances around her before she shrugs and turns back to the door. They stand in silence for about another minute before she repeats her earlier actions. "Ms. Morris, are you home?" she calls out, knocking on the door again.

JJ glances above her and swears that she saw movement from the curtains in one of the windows on the second floor. She takes a step off of the porch and glances up at the second floor once again, to see if she can catch the same thing twice. "Em, I think somebody's up there."

"Well then they should come answer the door, we've been standing out here for probably five minutes already." Emily responds indignantly. "C'mon, let's check out the back."

Emily takes the lead off of the porch and leads the way around back to the surprisingly cluttered large back yard of the house. There are random scraps of junk everywhere and some of it is even piled high above their heads.

"I have a pool in _my _backyard…" JJ mutters sarcastically as they step over various debris and make their way to the back door.

"I don't have a backyard; too much upkeep." The older woman jokes as she knocks on the backdoor. "Ms. Morris?"

JJ folds her arms as they wait for the woman to come and open the door. Somebody has to be at home, she saw them in the window just a few minutes ago. Her hand travels to rest on her gun and she frowns when she swears that she hears a noise. "Em, did you hear that?"

Emily frowns and turns around as she gazes around the cluttered backyard. "I didn't hear anything…" she replies as she carefully unclips her gun from its holster while JJ does the same. Before either of them can say another word, a heavy shot rings out, scaring the birds in the trees of the backyard.

"FUCK!" JJ swears loudly when she feels a sharp overbearing pain in her leg that sends her collapsing onto the deck of the porch with her gun clattering to her side. She covers the part of her leg with her hand and swears again, when she feels an all too familiar warm sticky liquid beginning to seep through her fingers. "Em, he's there!"

Before the young man can even reload the chamber of his shotgun, a well placed bullet connects spot on with the front of his head, rendering him dead instantly.

Emily takes her attention off of the now deceased perp and drops to her knees before removing her jacket and placing it over one of JJ's bleeding wounds while the blonde applies pressure to the other one.

"Fucking bastard shot me…" JJ groans through grit teeth from the pain as Emily calls it in.

"I'm at 1701 Brentwood drive, I need an ambulance, I have a federal agent down." The dark haired woman says speedily into the phone as she feels blood beginning to seep through her own fingers.

"It'll be alright Jayje, just hang on for me."

**Ohhh a lot went down in this chapter. A whole lot went down. Then again, a whole lot went down in the last chapter too. Man, I bet getting shot in the leg hurts like hell. Anyway, leave your feedback! **


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Okay, first off, I'm just going to say, I am not a doctor, and my knowledge of human anatomy may be a little less than par, so every thing that is used down there is provided courtesy of me googling stuff. So, bear with me. Hope you enjoy. **

**Also, **

**Nobot4Life: I'm positive this chapter will answer your question. **

"What do you mean you have to re-prep her for surgery?! Why wasn't this already taken care of?!" Garcia shouts, succeeding in startling the doctor and causing him to nearly drop his clip board. She slightly relaxes when she feels Emily's hand on her shoulder, but only slightly.

The doctor clears his throat nervously, and shakily glances down at his clipboard. "Well, we had to do the routine surgery to remove the bullets, but the amount of injury that they caused is far worse than what we had anticipated when she was brought in."

"What do you mean far worse?" Emily asks cautiously, her worry increasing upon seeing the look on the doctor's face.

"What I mean is, the gunshot wounds did a lot more damage than we had predicted, and they were well placed enough to where they were able to place off of each other's damage. Let me explain; judging by the placement of the wounds, Agent Jareau was shot with an over/under dual barrel shotgun; the gun itself being very powerful and used mainly for sporting and hunting. Now, upon impact of the first shot, the bullet was able to penetrate gastrocnemius muscle, just barely nicking the tail end of the femur bone. This, in turn, caused the muscle to tear cleanly from the bone itself. The tearing of the muscle resulted in a chain reaction due to the second gunshot wound, and assuming the way that she fell once her leg could not support her wait any longer. What this means is, that chain reaction which resulted in the complete tearing from the gastrocnemius muscle, also resulted into the tearing of the two insertion muscles, the soleus muscle and the Achilles tendon. Basically what I am saying is that, all of the muscles from her knee joint down to her ankle tore from the bone completely."

At this both Garcia and Emily wince at the painful thought of muscle tearing from the bone. Neither of them can even begin to imagine how painful that must be, but then again, neither of them wants to.

"Is it able to be fixed?" Garcia asks, tears already springing to her eyes at the mere thought of the painful surgery that JJ is going to have to go through.

"Fortunately we do not believe that we will have to resort to amputation, and hopefully we will be able to repair all of the muscles without issue. I will be able to explain more once her surgery is complete. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you ladies more." He pauses briefly and glances around before he drops his voice down to a low whisper. "Typically I wouldn't be allowed to do this, but I can see the great amount of concern that you have for your friend. I can take you to see her before her surgery if you'd like."

Garcia's face lights up, and before Emily can even open her mouth to respond, she finds the flamboyant blonde dragging her down the hall as they follow the doctor to wherever he's taking them.

He comes to a stop outside of a door, where he pulls out his badge and scans it against the panel on the door. "She's just been given the anesthetics so she may be a little groggy." He explains as he opens the door for the two women.

An audible gasp escapes Penelope's lips upon seeing on a gurney with her arm throat haphazardly over her eyes. "Oh my god Jayje…how are you feeling?" she gasps sadly.

"Like I've been shot in the leg." JJ groans, lazily dropping her arm down to her side as her speech displays the on coming affects of the anesthesia.

"I'm calling Casey." Garcia says flatly as she moves to pull out her cell phone.

"Noooo don't call Casey…" JJ groans again, screwing her eyes shut, suddenly feeling like it is too bright in the room.

This time it's Emily who speaks up with a very concerned frown on her face. "JJ you've been shot, and she's your girlfriend, I think that she kind of has a right to know."

"She'll worry…I don't want her to worry. You are not calling her Garcia and that's final. I mean it."

"Fine…" Garcia mumbles darkly.

"C'mon Pen, we should let her succumb to the anesthesia, because we both know that she's fighting it. Take care Jayje." Emily says softly, literally having to tug Penelope out of the room.

The two make their way back to the waiting room where they once were before. They stand in a small silence before Emily unclips her phone from her belt and begins scrolling through her contacts list.

"What're you doing?" Garcia asks, eyeing the brunette curiously as she puts the phone to her ear.

"Calling Casey." Emily responds nonchalantly as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"But Jayje said-"

"She told _YOU_ not to call Casey. She didn't say anything about_ me_."

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan **

"Well…look at it this way, you did say that you really did like her chair. And look! Now you have a window! You didn't used to have a window!" Casey says awkwardly, trying to ease the uncomfortable expression splayed across Kim's face.

Kim blinks rapidly before looking up at Casey from her new chair...in her new office...because of her new job. "I cannot believe Liz did this…I really can't. I mean, god, I bet Abbie wants to murder me slowly and publicly right now. You know she won't even look at me? I didn't want this Casey, I really didn't. How am I supposed to go to court now knowing one of my second chairs wants to slit my throat because what I'm doing is supposed to be her job? I mean, in all honesty, I wouldn't mind being lead prosecutor under different circumstances but not these. Not when it's going to cause one of my friends to hate me. May as well start planning my funeral."

"Hey, just give Abbie some time to cool off. Everything will be fine in no time I'm sure." Casey says reassuringly not wanting her facial expressions to give away just how bad she thinks the situation is.

"Yeah well…hey, do you know what's going on with her and Alex? They exchanged some pretty heated words in the hall earlier. And by heated I mean Abbie had her pinned against the wall probably threatening her life. What's up with that?"

Casey makes a face and shakes her head in confusion. "Honestly, I don't know. I have noticed a bit of tension between the two of them but I haven't really wanted to say anything."

Kim hums and sits in silence for a long moment before speaking. "Think they're sleeping with each other?" she deadpans.

"Oh my god no! Kim, oh my god what's wrong with you?!"

"I was just joking. But seriously, you might wanna find out what that's about, just incase one of them turns up dead. Well, at least you'd know who to suspect."

Casey rolls her eyes as she makes her way to the door of Kim's office. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." She states rolling her eyes before leaving. She makes her way down back towards her own office when she hears a heated dispute radiating from Alex's office. Having curiosity getting the best of her, she goes to see what it's about.

* * *

"Abbie, I said I was sorry…" Alex repeats for probably the fiftieth time in the past five minutes.

"I don't see how you apologizing is going to help her solve her own problems." Serena remarks rolling her eyes as the brunette continues to pace angrily back and forth.

Abbie narrows her eyes at Serena before turning to Alex and pointing a finger at her ex. "Tell her Alex."

"Abbie I really don't think that…"

"TELL. HER."

Alex sighs and rakes her hands through her hair as she leans against her desk. She wraps her arms around herself and glances at Serena who is gazing back at her with a confused and curious expression. Sighing heavily once more, she begins. "Not too long ago, I let my jealousy and my vanity get the better of me. I personally typically wouldn't do something like this, but since people usually view me as that type of person, I actually had no problem with it at the time. I couldn't…I didn't know how to tell Casey how I really felt for her, so instead of being a woman about this I resorted to childish tactics. I-I...I blackmailed Abbie into saying horrible things about Jennifer in an attempt to drive Casey away from her, and to say anything else that I needed her to. I knew about her…thing with the stripper, and I used that as ammunition if she refused. So…she refused, and in my frustrations I told you about the stripper, just like a threatened I would. I really didn't think things would get that bad, and I'm sorry…to both of you."

Serena's mouth hangs agape for another second, before her gaze hardens and she shoots out of her chair. "Alex, I can't believe you! You are supposed to be my best friend, and best friends don't sabotage each other's relationships! Granted, Abbie shouldn't have cheated on me, but you…you used that against the both of us. How am I supposed to trust you after this?"

"I love how the both of you are talking about me as if I'm not even in the room." Abbie grumbles, crossing her arms tightly.

Serena shifts her glare from Alex and she quickly closes the space between her and Abbie, giving the taller woman a hard shove causing her to stumble. "You have absolutely no right to speak with me, and from what I hear, I no longer work for you so I can say whatever the hell I want. I loved you. I loved you, and I trusted you, and I thought you loved me, but apparently I was wrong. If you really did, you would have told me about your mistake instead of making under the table deals with my best friend to keep your dirty little secret under wraps!" her voice cracks on the tail end of her sentence as she glances between the women she used to could trust with her life, but now she's not so sure anymore. "I can't believe either of you! How am I ever supposed to trust either of you again? I just…I just can't. And I don't see how Casey can trust either of you either, or does she not know?"

"She knows now…" Casey speaks up stepping in to the room eyeing all of the women in confusion.

"How much did you hear…" Alex says quietly, looking at the floor out of shame.

"I heard enough." Casey responds, her tone mirroring Serena's; full of hurt and anger. She turns to Abbie and scowls deeply. "I can't believe you."

Abbie's eyes widen and she briefly glances at Alex before gesturing to herself. "ME?! Casey this isn't my fault!"

"The fact that you would rather do something that would hurt me, your best friend, in exchange for keeping YOUR mistake covered up…what am I supposed to think?!" Casey nearly shouts, pointing a finger at Alex. "You're no better than she is! And to think that I actually started to feel sorry for you!"

For the first time in minutes, Alex attempts to step in. "Casey, it isn't exactly her faul-" she begins but finds herself soon cut off.

"Shut up Alex. I cannot believe how much of an idiot I've been to fall for you all over again. Do you even feel for me like you say you do? Or was it just another lie that you've told for your own personal profit? What are you trying to accomplish here because believe me, I don't know."

"Yeah, none of us do." Serena snorts before she exits the office shaking her head in disgust.

Abbie stares at the floor blankly before she follows suit. "I'll leave you two to talk…" she says quietly before closing the door behind her.

Alex takes a deep breath and moves closer to the angry woman in an attempt to calm her down. "Casey, I'm sorry…I know that this is a mess, and I caused it, and I really didn't intend to hurt you. I'm not used to loving someone the way that I love you. I didn't know what to do at the time, and I know it was wrong, but Casey I was willing to do anything for you."

"Including screw my best friend over, and destroy the relationship of yours, right Alex, I can see how you did that out of love." Casey snorts sarcastically.

"Casey please…I didn't want things to turn out like this. I-I'm sorry…" the blonde apologizes softly, knowing that there really isn't anything that she can do to rationalize her actions.

Shaking her head, Casey sighs and heads for the door. "I must be some kind of masochist. How is it even after the things you've done I still find myself having feelings for you…" she mumbles before slipping out the door. Once in the hall, she finds herself approached by a very exasperated looking Kim.

"Hey, uh, you left your cell phone in my office." The brunette says holding out the device that displays like seven missed calls. "An Emily Prentiss has called you about seven times."

Casey frowns and thanks Kim before she takes her phone to return the call. It rings a total of three times before she's met with a quick 'hello'. "Hey, um…I saw that you called about seven times, I'm sorry, I was…in a meeting. What's up."

"I don't want you to freak out okay? But JJ's been shot and she's going into surgery. She didn't want anyone to call you, but I felt like you had a right to know." the agent explains over the phone.

Casey pales at least three more shades and it's as if all of her worries, fears, and concerns have been confirmed. "O-oh my god, what-what happened? Is she alright?"

"Like I said, they're taking her into surgery know because of the leg injury. I'm not asking you to drop everything and come right now, but do you think you can in the next couple of days? Just to see how she's doing?"

"Y-yeah of course…" Casey stutters miserably. She still finds herself holding her phone to her ear even long after the call has ended. She isn't sure what's worrying her more, the fact that Jennifer was shot, or the fact that Jennifer was shot and didn't want to tell her.

**Like I said, I'm not a doctor, although, while I was typing that, I found myself involuntarily wincing and I felt like my own leg was hurting. I'm not sure if any of that would actually happen for a gun shot wound, but damnit, it did in this story.**

**Anyhow, I'm desperately trying to figure out how to bring this to a close, just don't know how I'm gonna do it yet. Last night, I found myself unable to get zero sleep, and I found myself typing out a prologue to my next story. It's just a little snippet preview of what is to come after this story, and maybe I'll post it if you guys are good and actually want it :) **

**Also! I wanna thank you guys for reading and loving 'Foreign Soil' so much. It truly is a privilege and an honor to be able to write a story with Death Makes An Artist and I'm really glad that you guys like that story. It means a lot :) **

**Anyway, leave your feedback! **


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: This story is starting to wind down you guys. Maybe one to two more chapters at least. Anyway, thanks for sticking around! Happy readings.**

By the time that Casey is finally able to get down to DC, her nerves are completely shot from worry. She has questions, probably a million of them, but she isn't sure if they're going to get answered. This is most definitely not the way that she had anticipated seeing Jennifer again.

As soon as she steps into the waiting area, Casey sees a flash of color and then feels herself being enveloped into a very tight bone crushing hug. Garcia. "P-Penelope…we talked about this…I. Can't. Breathe."

"I know sweetie; you just really looked like you needed a hug." Garcia explains, squeezing Casey tighter one last time before she releases her hold and returns to her chair.

"Um, you know how she is…" Emily says chuckling awkwardly.

Casey nods nervously and manages a smile. "Yeah, I think I'm slowly getting used to it. So um…how is she?" she questions curiously.

Something of worry flashes across the brunette's face but as soon as it's there it's gone. "She's…awake, and mad as hell. Something you should know about JJ is that she really hates hospitals."

"What'd the doctor say?"

"Well, she came through her surgery successfully so that's a good thing. But he said that because of how critical her injury was, she's not going to be allowed in the field for twenty four months…at the minimum"

Casey's eyes widen upon hearing the new found information. In the amount of time that they've been seeing each other, she knows how passionate JJ is about her job, and to not be allowed in the field for at least two years…well that'd be like telling Casey she isn't allowed in a courtroom for two years.

"Oh my god, she must be really upset." She gasps, not even beginning to imagine the blonde's potential mood.

Emily nods her head before folding her arms. "Oh believe me, she is. Like I said, she's awake now, and you can go see her. But before you go in there, I must warn you. I didn't tell her that I called you." she explains, pausing when she sees the confused expression on the attorney's face. "She didn't want you to worry, so she didn't want either of us to call you. JJ has this thing in her mind that she always has to be okay, and she hates it when people worry about her. She just…didn't want you to worry."

Casey snorts humorlessly and shakes her head. "She was shot, of course I'm not going to worry." She mutters sarcastically. "What room is she in…"

"87."

JJ glares at the television mounted in the corner of the room. She grits her teeth in anger as she irritably flips through the small variety of channels once more. With a heavy, defeated sigh, and glances down at the wretched cast that houses the injury that has succeeding in crippling her for to long for her liking.

She hears the door to the room open, but assuming that it's either Garcia or Emily, JJ keeps her eyes angled at the television, trying to find interest in what's on at the moment. What she doesn't expect is to see a very familiar redhead entering the room out of the corner of her eye. Oh no.

"Casey? What are you doing here?" the blonde asks wide eyed, wondering which one of her friends went again her wishes in making that phone call.

"I came to see how you are." Casey responds trying and failing a little to keep the hurt out of her tone. "But if you would have had it your way, I would've never known until you recovered."

JJ makes a face, and averts her gaze to something else in the room, anything other than the sad green eyes that are staring at her for answers. "I didn't want to worry you, it's not that big a deal…" she mumbles, crossing her arms in a defensive manner.

Casey scoffs and shakes her head at JJ's determination to be fine at all costs. "Jennifer you were shot, it is a big deal. Just like when you fell off that building; it's a big deal because I care about you. The doctor said that you can't go back to work for two years at the _MINIMUM _Jen, how is that NOT a big deal? Two years JJ, not two days, hell, not even two months, two years! What the hell were you doing?!"

"It wasn't anything drastic! Em and I were just going to interview a potential witness for a case, and her son freaked and shot at us. Well…shot at me; Emily made it out unscathed. I'm fine…"

Sighing, Casey shakes her head once more and purses her lips. "You know I play softball…a few years a go I had ACL surgery. Six months of physical therapy, twelve to thirteen months of recovery…how long do you have?"

JJ stays silent for the longest of times before she heaves a heavy sigh and shakes her head. "I don't know…he said it's too soon to tell. Granted, every muscle there is in my lower leg fucking tore, so I'm betting it's going to feel like forever. I think when he said I can't go back to work for two years, he was just trying to be nice…"

Casey runs her hand up the length of the cast and eventually settles on taking the agent's hand in her own. She bites down on her lip as that night with Alex floods her memories, and she feels that sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach once more.

"There's something that you aren't telling me…what's up?" JJ asks curiously, slightly tilting her head to the side in curiosity.

Casey opens her mouth to respond but any chance of words freeze in her throat. Can she really do this now? She realizes that Jennifer has a right to know what happened, and she doesn't want to hide it form her, but Christ, the woman is in a hospital bed. Casey just can't bring herself to break JJ's heart, she just can't do it.

"Hey, if it's about the fact that I didn't want anyone to call you, I'm sorry…I just didn't want you to worry, and we didn't exactly part on good terms the last time that we saw each other."

"You were the one that walked out." Casey mumbles, probably a little darker than intended.

JJ winces at the attorney's tone and sadly nods her head. "I guess I deserved that. You're right. I'm sorry. I just felt like I could stay there after what you told me, or if I even meant anything to you since you were telling me how confused you were. That and I needed to leave before I made a rash decision and decided to kill Alex with the gun I keep in my glove compartment." she mumbles indignantly, smiling when she sees the mortified expression on Casey's face. "I was kidding."

Casey sees JJ's smile and chuckles nervously. "Good…I don't think that I could explain very well that my girlfriend went on a manic rampage and shot my boss." _'My boss that I slept with after you left me…' _

"You're getting that look again." Jennifer points out softly after a small silence. "That look when you're thinking about something, and it's troubling you. Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"

"I can't…" Casey replies sadly, tearing her gaze away from concerned blue eyes. "I want to…I just, I can't."

JJ chuckles and takes Casey's hand in her own. "It can't be that bad can it? Unless it's about Alex…" she trails off, her smile fading completely when she sees the serious look on Casey's face. "Did she kiss you again?"

Casey opens her mouth to respond but once again she finds the words caught in her throat. Tears spring to her eyes as she closes her mouth and looks away from JJ's questioning gaze.

A confused frown soon replaces Jennifer's prior expression and her curiosity increases as she feels the redhead's hand begin to tremble. "Did something happen else happen…?" she asks softly, her heart sinking when it dawns on her, and what happened is practically written all over Casey's face. "You slept with her…"

A single tear spills from Casey's eye and she has to close both of them to keep more from flowing. Her heart leaps into her throat when she feels JJ's hand extract from her own. "I'm so sorry…"

JJ feels like her heart has been sliced in two, and she stares at her hands to keep from having to look at anything else. "Wow…okay. You slept with her."

"I wasn't planning to. You just…you left, and I needed someone, and Alex was there. She let me open up, and talk, and one thing just lead to another. It just happened." Casey tries to explain, but she instead feels like that her actions can't be rationalized.

"Because things like that just happen…right. Listen, Casey, if you don't want to do this anymore, that's fine. I love you, but I can clearly tell that you don't feel the same way. I know that you care, and I'm thankful for that, but I also know what you feel for me isn't love. If you're still confused over what you want to do…then that obviously says something about us."

Casey wipes her eyes and frowns in slight confusion. "Are you saying that you're giving up? You're not going to try and fight for me?"

JJ shakes her head and runs her hands through her hair. "That's not what I'm saying. I can see it in your eyes that I really don't stand a chance up against Alex. Granted, I have no idea what anyone would see in her but I can see that I really have no chance here. I shouldn't have left, and I apologize for leaving, but I just…I know where I stand in our relationship, and I know what I want. You don't know what you want, and that says something. Basically what I'm saying is, I can't fight a battle that I know I'm going to lose. If wanting to be with her is what would make you happy…then I can respect that and be happy."

Casey feels her heart break as she takes note that JJ is pretty much determined not to cry, although she's hurting. She sighs herself, and takes off the necklace that she received on Christmas day. She then stares at it a moment longer before holding it out to the blonde. "You…probably want this back…"

JJ shakes her head and closes Casey's hand around the necklace. "No, you keep it. It'll mean so much if you do. This is probably for the better…the distance, my job. I mean, look at me, I'm going to be on crutches probably for the next year or so. Why would you want to be with someone who is constantly putting herself in this kind of danger? Don't try to tell me that you haven't thought about it, because I know you have. You can't lie to me remember? You would think I would be used to this by now; all of my relationships end like this. It's the job, I get it…"

As much as Casey wishes that she could deny it, she knows that it's true, granted, it's not the only thing that's been bothering her, but she knows that Jennifer's ob is one of the top three. She hangs her head and pockets the necklace after a small silence. "Can we still…talk?"

JJ smiles and places a soft kiss to the back of Casey's hand. "Yeah. If you ever need anything, call me. Now go, I'm sure that you're getting pretty tired of driving back and forth to DC…oh, and tell Alex I'm sorry I broke her nose."

A tiny smile graces Casey's lips as she chuckles at the apology. "Something tells me she deserved it…" she mumbles. She pauses for a moment before she leans down and presses a soft kiss to the blonde's cheek. "You take care of yourself. Don't give the doctors hell. Em told me how much you hate hospitals."

JJ only laughs at the command. The two share eye contact for another moment before they utter one last goodbye. Even after Casey has left, JJ is still determined not to cry. It isn't until Emily steps into the room and asks what happened do her first tears begin to fall.

"She's gone..."

**District Attorney's Office of Manhattan **

Abbie sits on the roof of the office and stares blankly down at the miniscule cars passing below. Up that high, everything looks like a toy. The cars look like little remote controlled toys, and the people look like tiny ants busying themselves with whatever it is they have going on for the day. She sighs heavily, and rests her head in her hands, thinking back to everything she's done wrong.

"I don't see how the hell you sit up here, it is freezing." A voice grumbles as they approach the quiet brunette.

Abbie chuckles quietly as she looks up just in time to see Kim plop down next to her. She then turns back to where she is gazing down at the street below. "It's my thinking place. It calms me believe it or not. What're you doing up here?"

"Oh you know, I just thought I would come up to the roof and spit just to see if I could hit anyone down below." Kim states with a shrug, her eyes narrowing when she sees the look she's getting. "I was looking for you, you idiot…"

Abbie rolls her eyes and leans back on her hands before sighing again. "Well thank you for gracing me with your lovely presence. Why were you looking for me, and how did you know I was up here?"

Kim shrugs and wraps her arms around herself due to the wind. "Oh, you seemed…upset, and I asked your secretary where you might be and she said that you come up here often so…here I am."

"Your secretary." Abbie corrects.

"What?"

"She's not my secretary and more, she's your secretary."

Kim nervously bites her lip and awkwardly chuckles at the correction only to fall silent when Abbie doesn't reply. "Yeah, um…I'm not exactly used to having an assistant anything…"

Abbie laughs humorlessly, and still refrains from making eye contact with her successor. "Right, well you should get used to it…"

"Abbie, please tell me you understand that this isn't exactly my fault. Granted, I really didn't want this. I mean…I'm sorry that this happened and I really didn't…"

"It's fine, it's my own damn fault anyway." Abbie grumbles shaking her head. "I cheated on Serena a little while ago, Alex used it against me, and now all my shit has caught up with me."

Kim raises her eyebrows in question and decides that she needs to pick and choose her words carefully. "Oh wow…um…is that why there's that tension between you and Alex…and then with you and Serena everyone had just assumed it was another random fight. Then again, no one ever told me what really happened."

"It doesn't matter now. I've lost my girlfriend, my job, my best friend…again, everything just sucks. I really miss Serena, but she hates me even more now, and I hear she's really going steady with that doctor. Gah, I'm an idiot."

"You're not an idiot. You've just messed up that's all." Kim says reassuringly as she places her hand on Abbie's shoulder. After a small silence between them, she finds the taller woman leaning in closer as if she's about to kiss her. What the hell. She gives Abbie's shoulder a light shove and scoots back quickly. "Abbie what the hell are you doing. We aren't attracted to each other…you're hurting because of Serena."

Abbie pulls back and immediately looks away, a blush creeping down her neck. "Y-yeah, you're right. I'm sorry. Just…the moment I guess."

Kim awkwardly clears her throat and turns her head where she hears the door opening. "Right…" she frowns when she sees Casey stepping out onto the rough, but the redhead motions for her not to stay anything so she stays quiet. "Listen Abbie, I think I'm gonna head back inside. Do you need anything?"

"No I'm good." Abbie mutters, turning her attention back to the street below.

Kim nods her head and turns to Casey as she passes her on her way back inside. "She's really torn up…maybe you can talk to her."

Casey nods and quietly thanks Kim as she approaches the ever so silent brunette. She watches Abbie for a moment before she takes a seat next to her and gazes down at the streets as well. "You know, you're gonna catch pneumonia out here."

"What's it matter…" Abbie replies with a shrug. "Why are you out here? I thought you weren't talking to me again…"

"As much as I would like to stay mad at you, I can't. This whole thing is childish." Casey states flatly.

Abbie laughs humorlessly as she barely catches a glance at her friend. "Childish is right. I just tried to kiss Kim for no apparent reason simply because I need to feel something."

"You just…what?!"

"Don't ask."

"I won't. But I don't want to fight with you, and I know you don't want to fight with me, so we might as well resolve this now instead of acting like a couple of teenage girls."

Abbie nods her head, but remains silent, fearing that if she says anything, it'll make the entire situation worse. She settles on sighing and resting her head in her hands once again. "How'd things go in DC…"

Casey twiddles her thumbs and ducks her head. "Oh…I…Jen and I broke up."

Abbie's head shoots out of her hands and she stares at Casey in bewilderment. "What? I thought…what?"

"Yeah…all of my fears were confirmed when she got shot in the leg, and it just wasn't going to work…so we broke it off. I still feel horrible simply because I know she fell in love with me, and I'm not sure I felt the same way."

"So…what does this mean for you and Alex?"

"That…that is the next thing I need to figure out."

**This made me slightly sad…but we all knew that it had to happen. Also, I'm glad that you guys have taken a strong liking to Repercussions so soon. I wasn't sure how good that prologue chapter was at first but I'm glad you all liked it. I'm looking forward to working on it. As for this story well, leave your feedback! **


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: This is the last chapter guys! It's a long one in honor of it being the last so I hope you enjoy!**

It is fairly early on a Saturday morning. Well, by Casey's standards, it is far to early to be awake on a Saturday morning. On a day that she doesn't have to work, she wants to savor the feeling of not having to get up, and that means she pulls a tactic that she's done ever since she was a teenager; she stays in bed till noon. Now, knowing all of that, she can't help but wonder why the hell she is awake at…holy crap is it really almost four o clock in the morning?!

Yawning, Casey turns over and places the pillow over her head in an attempt to fall back asleep. It isn't until she hears a kick knocking on her front door that she realizes that she realizes what the cause of waking her up was. With a small groan, Casey forces herself out of bed, and drags herself out of her bedroom. For a moment, she considers brushing her hair, but she eventually decides against it, thinking whoever it is that has interrupted her Saturday sleep probably better not give a damn about her appearance. After all, they're the one waking her up at the fucking ass crack of dawn on a Saturday.

She makes her way down the stairs and over to the front door where she foregoes looking through the peephole. Running a hand through her disheveled bed hair, Casey undoes the locks and swings the door open only for her eyes to narrow in complete confusion at her far-to-early morning visitor. "Alex, what the hell are you doing here? It's…almost four am…!"

Alex smiles sheepishly and stuffs her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. "So, is that a no I can't come in?"

Casey rolls her sleepy eyes and steps aside allowing Alex to step past her and enter the apartment. She lets out a puff of air as she redoes the locks and proceeds into her darkened living room where she can just barely make out Alex's silhouette standing there observing the darkness. Deeming that they need light, Casey wanders semi blindly over towards the wall where she flips a switch, illuminating the room in a far-too-bright light for her comfort.

"Now," she begins but pauses as she places her hand over her mouth covering the large yawn that threatened, and fulfilled its escape. "Now, what do you want? Why are you here at stupid thirty in the morning?"

"I have to take you somewhere," Alex explains with a small shrug. "Now go, get dressed, we don't have a lot of time."

Casey folds her arms tightly across her chest, and raises her eyebrows in confusion. "And why should I, of all people, go anywhere with you, of all people?" she questions blandly.

Alex sighs and averts her gaze to the floor. She realize that Casey does in fact have a point, but she hopes that she'll be able to make things right by this, even if it means that she has to apologize every five minutes. "Casey I…I just want you to know, that I'm sorry, about everything. I want to be a better person, and I'm determined to be a better person, and I'm going to start by showing you. I know that I can't exactly take back everything that I've done, but at least let me try and make up for it. Please come with me?"

There is hesitation evident in Casey's cold hard gaze, but much to Alex's surprise, it softens moments later and the redhead complies nodding her head. "Fine…give me ten minutes?"

Alex smiles and agrees as she watches Casey disappear back up the stairs. She briefly glances at her phone to check the time, and smiles at how smoothly everything is playing out. Now the rest of the day just has to go off without a hitch.

Ten minutes later, Casey returns downstairs in her own casual attire that resembles Alex's. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't a bit intrigued by seeing Alex in something other than blazers, suits, and stab your eyes out heels. She thinks that her casual attire makes her look more relaxed, and Casey would even go as far enough to say a little bit lovable.

"Okay, I'm ready. Now, where are we going?" she asks curiously, grabbing her keys and phone off the counter. She turns around, and her smile fades when she sees Alex smirking and holding up a silk piece of black cloth that looks like a blindfold. "Oh no…"

* * *

"Alexandra Elizabeth Cabot, I swear to god, if you don't tell me where the hell you're telling me…"

Alex quirks an eyebrow and briefly turns away from the road to glance at the frustrated redhead in her passenger side seat. "Did you just not only use my entire first name, but my middle name as well?" she questions, slightly chuckling at Casey's attempt to get under her skin by using her full name.

A smirk spreads across Casey's slips and she cockily folds her arms. "I did, what're you gonna do about it, blindfold me? You know, I'm pretty sure that this is a form of kidnapping."

"Not exactly Counselor, seeing as you voluntarily let me into your home, you didn't oppose me blindfolding you, and you willingly got into my car. I hardly believe that a jury would agree to your plead of kidnapping."

"You're a smartass, you know that?"

"I may have been told that once or twice. But just for good measure feel free to tell me again."

Casey rolls her eyes and sits back in her seat as she begins go wonder once again where it is that Alex is taking her that requires a blindfold. In all honesty, she doesn't know why she trusts the blonde, hell, a little part of her mind is telling her that she shouldn't, but at the very same time, she's intrigued at to what Alex has planned. She supposes that she's just going to have to wait and see.

Strangely to the surprise of both women, they fall into a light and slightly playful conversation as Alex continues to drive them to the mysterious unknown location. In fact, Casey has been so caught up in their conversation, that she is surprised when she feels that they are no longer moving. "I take it we're here then?" she questions, blindly reaching down to unbuckle her seat belt.

"That, we are." Alex chuckles as she gets out of the car and makes her way around to the passenger side. She opens the door and takes Casey's hand in her own, guiding the redhead out of the car. She can't help but laugh when Casey miscalculates her one of her steps and ends up tightly grabbing hold to Alex's shoulders to keep from falling. "I hadn't realized that you were this much of a hands on girl Miss Novak."

Casey narrows her eyes behind the blindfold and gives Alex small shove only succeeding in causing the blonde to laugh harder. "You can't see it, but I'm rolling my eyes at you."

"I'm sure you are, but it's nothing I'm not used to." Alex replies smugly before she takes Casey's hand in her own once again. "Now c'mon, we're ahead of schedule but I still don't us to miss anything."

Casey makes a face as she feels Alex begin to lead her somewhere once more. She contemplates questioning once again, and she opens her mouth to begin, only for the words to die on her lips when she suddenly feels a chance in terrain. She feels with each step she takes, her shoes slightly sink into the uneven ground. Only one thing can make people walk unsteadily like this; sand.

"Alex, where the hell are we? And why are you leading be into a random ass sand dune?" she demands, shivering when there is a cold breeze and the crisp smell of water wafts across her nose.

"I'm sorry that you're cold, I didn't anticipate it to be this chilly out this morning." Alex apologizes as they continue on their trek to god knows where.

"It's fine, I think I'll be fine once I can you know…see, and sit down and everything…" Casey responds begrudgingly, thoroughly surprised when they once again come to a stop. If she gets what she wants every time she complains then maybe she can complain more often.

She opens her mouth to say something else snarky, when she feels the blindfold gently untied from around her head. Her mouth falls open in shock as she stares out at the darkened watchers washing up on the beach only to retreat and then repeat their melodic dance moments later.

As her eyes adjust to the darkness, Casey turns to Alex and she rolls her eyes at the well placed smirk on the blonde's face. "As beautiful as this is, it's dark. What's the purpose of bringing me out here at the crack of dawn, when it's still dark?"

Alex's smirk turns into a grin as she motions towards a blanket that she's spread out across the sand. "Because, we are going to watch the sunrise." She explains as she plops down onto the blanket, and pats the ground next to, her beckoning for Casey to sit as well.

Casey shakes her head but she decides to humor Alex so she complies and sits next to the blonde on the blanket. After a moment she wraps her arms around herself and shivers despite already wearing a jacket. She makes a face and shakes her head when she sees Alex offering her own jacket. "Alex, you'll freeze out here."

Alex shakes her head and drapes her jacket over Casey's shoulders. "Not really. I'm used to the cold. I don't know what it is, but I have a really strong resistance to cold temperatures. I don't get cold easily, it's like my body is immune to it."

At this Casey can't help but snort and giggle at Alex's explanation. "So your nickname is literal and metaphorical." She jokes lightly as she pulls the blonde's jacket around her shoulders. Taking a deep breathe, she feels a blush creep to her cheeks as she realizes that she's enjoying the smell of Alex's perfume that's radiating off her jacket. It smells like something that Alex would wear; expensive.

Alex ducks her head and shrugs her shoulder as a small smile tugs at her lips. "You could say that, yeah." She says quietly as she draws random patterns in the sand with her finger.

Casey tilts her head to the side as she watches Alex's behavior. In her time of dating being with JJ, she did manage to learn something about other people's actions and reactions. "You want to ask me something." She states, her tone making sure it came out as a statement rather than a question.

A small frown crosses Alex's face as she looks up from her random sand patterns. "Why would you think that I want to ask you something?"

Chuckling nervously, Casey looks down and copies Alex's motions of drawing patterns in the sand. "I was romantically involved with a profiler. I think I managed to pick up on a few things here and there about human behavior." She explains, pausing as she chuckles sadly at a not so distant memory. "It was funny, because we would be at a restaurant, and she could tell that a waiter was going to hit on me before he even opened his mouth. She was…protective that way…"

"You miss her huh…" Alex questions softly, her tone betraying that of a small sadness that she hopes isn't shining through too much.

"To an extent…like I've said before, it just wouldn't have worked out. We were both worrying about too much. I was worrying about her being on the job constantly, and she was worrying about making sure that I wasn't worrying about her. Just too much worry. Then when she got shot…I think I realized that I wasn't exactly cut out for that kind of relationship."

Alex nods her head but doesn't say anything. Instead, she settles on resting her arms on her knees and staring out at the sun just barely beginning to peek over the water. Finally, after a long peaceful silence, she speaks. "I haven't seen an actual sunrise since I was twelve. When she wasn't busy, my mother would take me and my sister up to the roof of our house, and we'd watch the sunrise. When she passed away, and we were left in the care of my aunt, we never really got to see a sun rise again. I don't know why I felt the need to tell you that, it's just always been special to me, and I wanted to share it with someone I do love so we could…talk, I guess."

Casey slightly angles her head to the side, and she doesn't know why she's compelled to, but she finds herself scooting closer to Alex and taking the blonde's hand in her own. As upset as she knows that she's supposed to be with Alex, Casey can't deny that she feels a small spark upon taking Alex's hand, and her anger begins to slowly melt away. "We don't have to talk, we can just sit here." she whispers as she settles in between Alex's legs and allows the blonde to wrap her arms around her from behind. "We can just sit here, and watch the sunrise."

Alex smiles at the feeling of Casey wrapped in her arms. She feels Casey lean against her, and she places a soft kiss to her neck before resting her chin at her shoulder to watch the sunrise in a peaceful serene silence.

Casey feels a hammering in her throat, and she's not sure whether or not she's acting completely on impulse. But nevertheless, she leans back and stares into curiously blue eyes for a moment before she wraps her hand around the back of Alex's neck and pulls her down for a kiss.

The kiss is soft, sweet, and gentle, yet full of passion, want, and love. Pulling away, Casey chuckles quietly, and runs her fingers through Alex's hair. "I want to try this…with you. But only if you're sure that you're ready…"

Alex feels her heart sore, and she leans down again, just barely touching Casey's lips in a whisper kiss. "I'm more than ready."

**A Month and A Half Later **

"We already talked about this; you _cannot _wear ten inch heels going horse back riding." Serena says for probably the millionth time.

Alex whines and tilts her head back towards the ceiling. "But they will so match my outfit! And they'll look good! I don't know why we have to go horseback riding anyway."

"Because Casey wants to go, and you're going to comply and be a good girlfriend as opposed to the asshole that you were roughly two months ago." Kim deadpans in a playfully serious tone that earns a snort and a giggle from Serena.

Alex narrows her eyes at the brunette and flips her off before turning back to the ceiling. "ANYWAY, I just don't know…I'm afraid of horses you guys."

The other two women look at each other in silence for all of five seconds before the burst into hysteric laughter, causing Alex's ears to glow a bright fire engine red. Honestly, why can't people ever take her serious when she is actually being serious as opposed to when she's not?

"Alex why are you afraid of horses? What're they gonna do, eat you?" Serena says through her laughter.

"No, no, if anything they'll laugh at her because she'll show up dressed like a princess." Kim adds on, smacking a high five with Serena.

Alex narrows her eyes and puffs out her cheeks like a small child would in the event of total embarrassment. "Well I'm glad that they two of you are having a grand hearty laugh at my expense. Don't get me wrong, I want to go, and I plan on going, I just hope that Casey knows she's going to have to be very convincing to get me on a damn horse."

"Judging by the noises you were making in your office last night, she can in fact be _veeerrry_ convincing." Serena says waggling her eye brows suggestively.

Alex's jaw drops and this time her entire face turns a bright fire engine red. "How do you…why would you…"

"I was working late last night. Check your surroundings more carefully sweetie." The shorter blonde offers with a wink.

"Speaking of very convincing, has Doctor Barbie bought you that yacht you wanted yet?" Kim asks breaking into the playfully banter between the two recently reconciled best friends.

Serena rolls her eyes and slinks down in her chair. "No she has not bought me a yacht. Though, that would be nice…I haven't even asked for a yacht! But you should see the amount of money that she spends on me though, it's ridiculous. I mean, I'm not complaining, but still…"

"Let her pamper you," Kim says wafting her hand in the air. "And if you get tired of it, tell her to send some diamonds to my address."

"I bet your closet has expanded drastically in the last few months." Alex says with a chuckle.

Serena blushes and manages a chuckle herself before sighing. "Yeah…I think I'm falling in love again guys."

"Whoa, this is getting serious then." Alex states, with her mouth formed into a perfect 'O' shape.

"I think it is, I mean, she's so charming, and sweet, and she puts me before anything else. It's amazing."

"Ooo! You should ask her for those new Louboutins that came out like a week ago." Kim says dreamily, her dreamy smile fading when she sees her friends looking upon her with curiosity. "You know, just to see if you like them…if you don't then you can always just, pass them onto a friend."

Serena rolls her eyes while Alex bursts into laughter and shakes her head at Kim's antics in trying to indirectly mooch off of Doctor Barbie.

"Kim, you and I are pretty close, why haven't you just asked me to buy you the shoes?"

Kim narrows her eyes and gives Alex a look that says 'really…ask you for something'. "Would you ever buy me those shoes…"

"Absolutely not."

"My point exactly." The brunette responds before turning back to Serena. "I wear a size six and a half to a seven. Take that down just incase."

Serena shakes her head and absentmindedly begins to toy with the twenty four karat necklace given to her as a 'just because' present. "I just hope that Lindsey doesn't think I'm just with her for her money. I really do think I'm in love guys."

Alex opens her mouth to say something but she notices Kim's eyes repeatedly flickering from her to the doorway then back to her. She frowns and spins in her seat, upon realizing what Kim was trying to say. "Abbie! What a surprise!"

Abbie is startled out of her trance of gazing at Serena before she pushes herself to walk into the office. "I-I…sorry if I'm um, interrupting." She mumbles, handing Kim a rather thick folder. "I just had to give this to you. That's pretty much all I wanted." She concludes, casting a small smile at Serena, even after hearing a majority of their conversation; probably a little more than she wanted to hear.

Serena smiles back, despite the heavy awkwardness that she's feeling in the room. Just as she's anticipated, even after the talk that she and Abbie had not to long ago, things were still a little awkward between them, but she then realizes it's going to be that way for quite a while. Maybe it'll blow over some time in the next few months or so.

The heavily awkward silence in the room is broken by someone nervously clearing their throat in the doorway. They all look up to see Alex's assistant, Kate, standing there nervously, praying that she hasn't intruded on something.

"I-I'm sorry if I'm interrupting…but Miss Cabot, there is a blonde on crutches looking for you." the young girl explains shakily, feeling intimidated in the room full of attorneys.

_'A blonde on crutches…?'_ Alex mouths to herself as she curiously stands up from her chair. "Thank you Kate." She says dismissing her assistant. She casts a glance at her friends and shrugs before she exits Kim's office in search of said blonde on crutches.

Alex makes her way down towards her office content on finding this stranger, but she freezes mid step, when she realizes that it is in fact no stranger. Her mouth goes completely dry, and she swears her heart stops when she sees a crutch bound Jennifer Jareau waiting by her office, engrossed in something on her cell phone.

"J-Jennifer?" Alex asks curiously, gaining the blonde agent's attention. "What're you doing here?"

JJ looks up from her phone and gives Alex a sincere smile. "Hey, I was just wondering if I could talk to you."

Alex eyes her curiously for a moment before motioning her hand towards her office. "Please." She offers, watching carefully as JJ makes her way through the door. She silently hops that the agent isn't there to kill her as she follows her inside and shuts the door behind them. "So, what can I do for you."

JJ takes a deep breath and shifts her weight on her good leg. "I just wanted to talk to you, about Casey." She states, holding up a hand when she sees Alex about to interrupt her. "Please, let me finish before you say anything. I knew that while Casey and I were together that she felt something for you, and it was scarily obvious that you felt something for her. I'm not here to try to take her away from you, because I know that she can be happy with you. Happier than she could ever be with me. I guess what I'm basically saying here is, take care of her, please? That's all I ask. Take care of her, and please don't hurt her. If you do…well, just know that I do always have a gun on me somewhere." She concludes with a smirk.

Alex smiles at JJ's playful threat and nods her head. "You have my word that I will take good care of her."

"Great, that's all I ask…so…no hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings. How's your leg?"

JJ winces and looks down at her cast leg before chuckling nervously. "I have a long painful road ahead of me. Can't be in the field for two years. Don't know how much physical therapy I'll need yet. But ya know, that's just how it is with the job I guess."

"Well I wish you a speedy and successful recovery." Alex says sincerely. "Casey has the day off today, should I tell her that you stopped by?"

JJ thinks for a short moment before shaking her head. She knows that her presence would possibly only cause more confusion for the beautiful redhead and that is the very last thing she wants. If she wants to be happy with Alex, then JJ sure isn't going to stand in her way. "Nah, let this visit be out little secret." She concludes smiling with a wink.

Alex nods her head and places her phone back into its cradle on her desk. She sends the agent a warm smile, all the while wondering just how the hell she can put a side her anger and be in the same room with the very same woman that she wanted to kill just not two months ago. Oh well, miracles do happen, after all, having Casey in her life is sheer proof of that fact.

**Very cheesy ending on my part there lol. Awwww I just HAD to have just one more JJ appearance before it ended. I made her TOO cute in this story. In fact, I'm sure if she knew how cute I made her she'd shoot me lol. **

** Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this story. It took several turns that I didn't expect from the start, but I think overall I like how it turned out. I really wanna thank you guys for sticking around as long as you have, and as always, your feedback means so much to me. **

**I'm really looking forward to working on Repercussions. There will be a few heart stopping moments there as well, but what good is a story with out those heart stopping moments? Anyway, enough of my babbling. For the last time on this story, leave your feedback!**


End file.
